Recently I discovered a podcast titled ' hosted by none other than former Screeching Weasel guitarist John Jughead Pierson. When John agreed to an interview recorded over skype, I decided to use the full audio footage to release a podcast of my own, which will be made available in the coming days. In the meantime enjoy this print version of our conversation.D: For anyone who is listening to or reading the transcriptof this, I’m talking with John Jughead, the cofounder, alongside Ben Weasel, oflegendary punk rock band Screeching Weasel. John, let me give the audience abrief background on you. J: I’ll give you the back-story onJughead’s Basement. I got asked by AMP Magazine to host their facebook page foran evening.
Supposively when I did it they had the most responses from peopleasking questions. I had a really great time and they thought it was prettygreat. My current producer, Jeromy Corp, had been following it on facebook andasked if I wanted to start a show. He runs another podcast and had boughtenough space that he wanted to offer it to anybody else who wanted to start aprogram. So I said yes to that, but then it was up to me to come up with theconcept of it. Like everything I do, I don’t liketo do it easily. I could have just done a live show and interviewed people, butI wanted to do something strange, something that incorporated using a lot ofthe writers and performers I know.
I’ve always loved the idea of explaining orexploring lyrics, which I don’t think is done enough, so I love the idea ofgetting a bunch of people who were influenced by specific records and gettingthem to write about their own lives in relation to that specific song on thatrecord. So that’s basically how that specific structure took place.
J: I don’t know how much we reallythought about what we were gonna do on stage. I think it more just came out asa reaction to the scene. Larry Livermore talks about this in the “My BrainHurts” podcast, the punk scene got very serious, hardcore music was veryserious, very political, and it just dominated everything, there was no senseof humor anymore.
So I think most of our stage performance came more out oftrying to break that pattern. I liked to dress up goofy and Ben didn’t minddoing that either, so we just did that naturally, and like I said his anxietydrove him towards being a Don Rickles stage presence.
We never really discussedit, it just sort of happened. By my age now, I wanted to be moreof a cohesive whole, so I thought of these podcasts as bringing all of myinfluences and the friends I had from these different scenes together, andrecords are the best way to do it because everyone is influenced by one recordor another. It’s not just punk records, I’m gonna do episodes on Tom Waits andWeird Al.
Al wasn’t really an influence for me but surprisingly was aninfluence for a lot of people I know. It’s gonna stretch out in many differentdirections, but I’ll always have a punk one every other show.
J: That’s a good question. LarryI’ve been in contact with the most because he’s always on his email andfacebook. Dan Panic and I sort of fell out, not emotionally fell out or had anyarguments, just since I stopped doing the royalties for the band. That’s when Iused to keep track of everybody, I’d send out all the royalties to anybody whohad ever been in the band, so I knew where everyone was, but that had stopped acouple years ago so I lost track of him. I just emailed him and he was up forit.
He hardly does interviews, he hates it, but he seems to do the things thatI advise, so I was very happy that he did it. J: It was a complicated issue, nocourt ever actually happened over that, but they pursued it. Lookout!originally split things 60/40, band gets 60% label gets 40%. Eventually theyrealized they couldn’t pay their bills, so they started taking money of off thetop before splitting it 60/40, but not informing the bands.
That’s where it gotout of control and we wanted to leave. In Maximumrocknroll, Ben printed a faxthat he got from Larry, that talks about them trying to sue us. It was ugly onboth sides, but it eventually blew up in their faces. D: I’m curious about the album’sother producer, Andy Ernst. One of the things that Larry said about him wasthat before doing the first Green Day record, Andy was producing a lot of hiphop and classic rock albums, and he didn’t seem to think much of that whole‘90s punk explosion, which seems weird to me because he’s now so synonymouswith it. What was the band’s relationship with him like?
Did he seem to getwhat you guys were doing, or just hit the record button and make sureeverything was working right? J: This was actually a verypersonal one and most everyone who’s on it is a really close friend of mine.It’s an interesting take, we’re splitting the whole record between six of us,so we each have about six to seven different songs because there’s forty-twosongs on the record. One of the guys, Bob Stockfish, came up with the idea “Whydon’t we have all of the songs be econo-style?” which is a Minutemen wordmeaning short and thrifty. So we’re all doing one to one and a half minutepieces on six different topics. A couple of them have been on the podcastalready, Steve Walker who’s one of my best friends, and directs all my plays,was on Repo Man.
Formed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Billy Raygun has been aroundsince 2006, and for the majority of that time has consisted of their currentlineup of singer/guitarist Zac Mayeux, guitarist Nate Rubin, bassist Cakes anddrummer David Solender. In the past year the youngest members of the band havegraduated high school, and the oldest can now legally buy alcohol. After sixyears and four EPs, I’m surprised a band formed by 14 year olds is stillaround, but in Billy Raygun’s case the music’s really good, so why stop? Z: Well as far as Portsmouth goes, through the 80's to the late90's it always had a really solid music scene.
I was way too young to have beenany part of that, though. There was an all ages club called the Elvis Room thatwas pretty famous and lots of touring bands used to come through to play thereafter Boston, as well as local bands like The Queers and Jabbers. I guess Iwould attribute many of the acts you mentioned being from Portsmouth to thefact that the city used to be much more open to music and all ages venues.There's still a local music scene, but nothing really in the punk vein.
Z: We had just played this bar in Lexington, Kentucky called TheGreen Lantern. The manager came up to me and told me he really enjoyed our set.He asked how old we were and when I told him our ages he started acting weird.He was muttering things like, 'not in my bar' and 'how couldthis happen?' He then tells Cakes, Nate, our friend Amber and myself tofollow him. He brings us down to the basement and proceeds to tell us we made ahuge mistake, we never should have come to Lexington and if anyone finds outthat he let us in his bar he’s going to kill our moms and bomb New Hampshire.That guy was definitely tweaking out on something crazy! Then he'd startyelling at us and snap out of it all of a sudden and say, “But please, have agreat night! You guys played really great!”, and then start yelling at usagain. He told us don't leave this basement and don't go in that room (pointingat a door in the basement).
Cakes asked what was in the room, and he told us itwas 'none of our business', in a really mysterious and menacing way.It was probably either a dead body or a meth lab. Anyways, as soon as he leftwe hid in the car the rest of the night while we watched him pace around theclub looking for us. The CharlieCard is a plastic card that gets you into the subway, busses, and other forms of transportation that service the Greater Boston area. If you're unfamilair with this fact, the title of this post may not make sense (and it doesn't help that the accompanying artwork of the character on the card flailing his arms ala the Circle Jerks logo has yet to be finished).
Bouncing Souls Rym
But I wanted to get this posted while the original story was still fresh; recently the Boston Herald posted an article about the Boston Police cracking down on moshing at shows, while citing the case of a college student who got concussed during a Flogging Molly set. Imagine my surprise when I found out that student was actually an acquaintance of mine who sings in a hardcore punk band called:Satch:, under the alias of John Wayne Swayze. After reading the Herald article, which cited a few quotes of his, I wanted to give him the oppurtunity to tell his entire side of the story, as well as giving a platform to talk about his band.D: What happened exactly?J: The whole night is a pretty big blur. I was pretty drunk when everything happened and then getting my fucking dome knocked screwy sure as shit didn't make the night more clear.From what I remember, I was in the pit during Flogging Molly, and at some point my head went forward at the same time someone else's head went backward.
He hits my forehead with the back of his head and I'm knocked silly. I just stumble, sort of fall backwards into the people standing at the edge of the pit, and they keep me from falling on my ass. The guy who hit me immediately realized how hard the collision was and turns to see if I'm alright, and the other people around me make sure there's nothing bad. I told them everything was fine. The guy apologizes and we have a wicked sexy man hug. I couldn't really see straight out of my right eye for at least a few songs afterwards, but I stayed in the pit, and was having a blast. Flogging Molly covered “The Times They Are A Changing”, which was fantastic and wicked cool to see live, but I really don't remember a ton else that happened during the show.
I have no clue what was the booze and what was the concussion.It's over a month later, and I'm still not recovered, it took a whole month before I could make it back to school. There were a couple weeks where I just couldn't really walk properly. One of the doctors I saw thinks that something was just fucked with the brain circuitry that controlled my legs. I still have to deal with near constant headaches and even this interview is making me a bit disoriented, like my head just ain't all there.
But shit happens and hopefully everything will get better.D: Is this the worst you've gotten injured at a show?J: By far. I got a concussion at a Dropkick Murphys show a couple years back but that happened during spring break and I was back in class the week after. I'm riddled with stupid injuries from various shit, like tendonitis in my shoulder and a nerve problem in my back that flares up at shows, but nothing nearly as serious or as shitty as this concussion.D: There are other stories about people getting hurt at shows and then suing the venue, which I assume you have no intention of doing. What would you say to someone like that kid in California who got damage at a Pour Habit show and is suing the venue?J: I don't know the details, so I don't want to feel like a dick talking out of my ass, but if it was a situation like mine then it's just a bullshit lawsuit. Boston has laws against slam dancing, House of Blues let it happen, and I got hurt. That's an easy lawsuit right there, but it's also a fucking stupid lawsuit to pursue.I want to slam dance and collide with people, it's fun.
People choose to go in there and we do it because we like it. We all know that slamming into other people has risks. But if you're going to sue, get the fuck out. Just keep away from people who are slamming, I've never been to a show where it's impossible to get away from that.D: How did the Boston Herald get in touch with you?J: My brother showed me the initial article about Boston cracking down on slam dancing and I contacted David Wedge, the author of that article, with my story. I asked him to give people my perspective and he immediately emailed me back so we could do a phone interview. My injury wasn't reported to House of Blues or the Boston Police, so I guess they didn't even know someone got hurt there until that article came out. The crackdown really had absolutely nothing to do with me, it's just funny timing that it started at the same show.D: I'm sure the Boston Herald just took a portion of what you said and printed that, so is there any full unabridged message you'd like to say to the city of Boston regarding this new enforcement?J: There were a couple of things I wanted to stress that David Wedge left out.
First off, the House of Blues staff never lets shit get out of hand. Seriously, it's the House of Blues and they got security right there in the crowd. What the fuck do the police expect to happen there? I've never seen a show get anywhere close to rowdy no matter how full, how tightly packed, or how obnoxious the people are. It's an all ages venues and it's legitimately safe for all ages.
If they're gonna start cracking down then they definitely chose the dumbest place to start.Second off, they have to be stupid if they think this is going to do anything positive for Boston. They're not going to stop people from slam dancing, moshing, or whatever the hell they're scared of.
We want to be there. We choose to spend our money on a ticket and then walk right into that pit of people slamming their bodies into each other.
So if we can't do it in Boston then we're just gonna do it somewhere else. No one is being saved by this, Boston is just asking people to stop pumping money into their clubs.D: So what kind of dancing was going on exactly, because I feel like there's a big difference, and the Boston Herald article didn't clarify this, between the type of slamdancing you'd expect to see at a House of Blues show, and the fists flailing type of moshing that you'd see at a tough-guy hardcore show for a band like Blood for Blood, never mind shit like spin-kicking.J: It was the usual type of slamdancing that always happens at the House of Blues. No fists or feet or elbows flying or anything that was actually violent. Probably a bit tamer than some shows can get there because security did try to keep the slamdancing down a little bit.D: So do you see this resulting in bands (specifically ones with a relative level of popularity) just booking more shows in places like Cambridge, Worcester, Providence, etc?J: They were trying to enforce it at the Flogging Molly show but they didn't try all that hard.
So I have no idea how much effort they're going to put into it. The Herald said they were fining venues, and hitting clubs in the wallet will definitely get their attention. I have no idea how hard they'll enforce it or what will happen if clubs don't.I definitely hope that bands and fans alike avoid playing in the city if it's fully enforced, at least any venue that cops will be watching. Hopefully basements stay safe even if clubs get fucked. I hate to see people avoid Boston but Boston could deserve it.D: I can tell you it's not being enforced at the small clubs that I've been to recently.
I went to a show on St. Patrick's Day, and there was lots of slam dancing, yet no one from the club telling everyone to stop, and also no one getting hurt. The one person who got way too aggressive, seemed to be a local college drunk in all green celebrating the holiday, rather than someone who goes to punk shows, and he was thrown out by the staff after being warned to cool it down and refusing.
The actions they took resulted in people being able to dance, yet making sure no one got knocked out by a violent drunk, I think that's a good model to go by for the smaller clubs.J: That's exactly how I think it should be handled. Let the venues decide how much they're willing to tolerate.
I feel like most venues that are willing to host aggressive shows understand what they're getting.D: At the same time, shouldn't the club be held responsible from a legal perspective, if that venue hadn't kicked that person out and people got their skulls smashed from him?J: Probably. I assume that's how everywhere else does it, venues can allow moshing if they want, but the legal shit is on them if it leads to problems.D: Have you been back to the House of Blues or any other larger clubs since the initial incident?
Did they enforce the policy?J: Nah, I haven't been back into any big Boston clubs since then. I had to lay low for a while and I'm still not really sure I feel like going back into a pit until my head is back to normal.Part IID: When did you join:Satch:?J: Depends on how you look at it. I think I became the singer for:Satch: in spring of 2011, but even before that, they were all my friends and I was writing some stupidly awful lyrics for them. I never considered myself part of the band at that point but Tipp (the guitarist) said he pretty much always counted me as a member.D: Had you sung in any bands before this?J: Not at all. I'm not a singer, I'm the drunk guy with the microphone.D: So who is doing what in the band now?
The last time I saw:Satch: was as a three piece, right before you joined.J: Hitman is our drummer, Tipp is the guitarist, and Solomon is the bassist. Same guys as always but with me added.D: Why is the name spelt between colons?J: I think it started out as like a joke about colons, like the part of an ass. I'm sure I've been told the story but my fucking memory has gone to shit between head injuries and narcotics.D: How would you describe your music and stage performance to someone unfamiliar with the band?J: It's like getting drunk, doing speed, and then fucking a stranger in the ass while his girlfriend tries to break down his door. I don't know a better way to describe it. It's fast, raw hardcore punk written by 4 assholes who are bored in general and bored with everyone else. We're not a political band with messages about anything, and we're not a group of artists getting together to play, just fun loving punks showing our balls and hoping someone has as much fun as we do.D: I've always thought of the band as the Ramones on speed, because it's that same 1-2-3-4, break into song, 1-2-3-4, break right into next song routine. But it's also played so much faster, and the guitarist is running all over the place, and you're right, there's no message or politics to it at all.
It reminds me a lot of what early 80s hardcore bands were doing in LA like Fear or The Germs, before hardcore had become so machismo and metal based.J: Yeah, that's the sort of shit that we draw from.D: Are there any plans for a new release?J: Planning isn't really part of our process so no one really knows for sure. There's a chance we're going into the studio for something shortly. It'd be nice to get our new stuff recorded and get all our shit together on a single disc.D: Did that ten songs in seven minutes recording you did ever get a physical release?
I remember seeing a picture of artwork for it, I think it was something like a shower drained by lice-infected pubic hair.J: It got as much of a release as anything we ever do, which is to say we burned copies then handed them out for free. That picture never got included but I don't think it was even made at the same time. If people want it, it's called the Crabs by Association EP, and it's available for free download at. Our follow-up demo is also free online, but I have no idea where that is. We just opened up a Bandcamp page so everything should be up there soon.D: In addition to hurting yourself in the audience, don't you hurt yourself on stage, by doing things like slamming your head into the microphone? I've seen pictures from:Satch: shows where you look pretty bruised.J: Oh yeah, although I gotta stop that for a while, it's something I just do when I'm really fucking into it. I'll do it when the crowd is too small or isn't really that into it and there is nothing to play off of but myself.
Screeching Weasel Tour
I've also slammed my head into a door just getting pumped up, and I've made my chest bleed from a mic stand. I can't explain it. Same reason why I go around slamming my body into people, I guess. Maybe I just do it because I'm too dumb, drunk, and indifferent to do anything better.D: Have you played any shows outside of New England, and do you have any plans to tour?J: No, and I wouldn't count on it any time soon. We're so fucking poor to begin with and everyone else has other commitments that get in the way.
Who knows for sure though? I'd love to go on tour, that'd be a great fucking time. We'll play anywhere for any reason, if we can, so maybe some time.D: At this point, where's the farthest out you've played a show?J: We've mostly just been playing greater Boston shows, like we just played at the Starlab in Somerville. Besides the immediate Boston area, I've only played with the band in Worcester and Lowell.D: How is Lowell these days? I've heard it described as the college and then a slew of bad areas?J: It's hard to describe it differently than you did but that's such an understatement. There's such a range of shit that doesn't seem to happen in most places. Just the mixing of college kids, the honest working class, and gang members from a million different cultural and ethnic backgrounds makes the city weird and oddly amusing.
Definitelya lot of bad areas and I sure as fuck wouldn't feel too safe getting lost here, but:Satch: was born in Lowell and I call the city home right now so I can't be too harsh.D: That's funny you'd say that about Lowell, an old roommate of mine described Fitchburg (another Massachusetts city with a State University) as a bad mix between drunk College kids and local poverty. I think it's the same thing though, there are decent people and decent things that get overlooked for the crime.J: Yeah, I've heard a lot of people describe Fitchburg the same way. Maybe that's why:Satch: was so well received and played their first couple shows there.D: Why weren't the first shows in Lowell?J: No idea, really. I wasn't involved with any booking at that point. I think it was a case of just playing the first places people offered.
But those Fitchburg shows were good and well received, so fuck it, we're not too worried about where we're playing as long as we get to play.D: Where can someone get in touch with you if they want to book you for a show?J: Go to our Facebook page,. If 30 is the new 16, Grath Madden may be the poster child for his generation. The 33 year old perpetually under or un-employed temp worker with a bachelors degree that took him nowhere, passes his time smoking pot, reading comic books, and watching too much television. And much like the protagonists in his comic book collection, Grath has an alter ego of sorts. Moonlighting by playing in punk rock bands, or at least when he feels like it, he has written, sang, and played guitar on one of the best albums of 2011, but that’s not gonna help him one iota when he ends up in line to collect unemployment.While he may be low man on the totem pole at his workplace, there's a subgroup of a subgroup of a subgroup that sees Grath Madden as somewhat legendary.
He cut his chops fronting The Steinways, a hugely influential and revered part of New York's 2000s pop punk scene. After The Steinways imploded, Grath went from writing short cutesy Steinways songs without choruses or refrains, to short self-loathing songs for his new band House Boat (also without choruses and refrains).Rounded out by legendary punk drummer Mikey Erg, former Off With Their Heads guitarist Zack Gontard, and Grath’s former Steinways band mate Azeem Sajid on bass, House Boat has carved their name among the list of best new punk rock bands going today.
I spoke to Grath about his bands, his life and The Biggest Loser Australia.D: Where are you originally from?G: Born and raised in Baltimore.D: Aren't the Madden brothers from Good Charlotte from that area? Do you have the misfortune of being related to them?G: Haha, yeah, I think they are from somewhere in Maryland, thankfully no relation.D: From reading the autobiographies of Robin Quivers and John Waters, I've got the idea that Baltimore was a seedy place for a kid to grow up in. Was that your experience?G: I moved to Parkville, Maryland when I was 12, so my first hand shady Baltimore experience is pretty minimal. I never really looked at it as any shadier or sketchier than anywhere else.
I mean, there are some awful, awful neighborhoods that I wouldn’t feel at all safe in, but I spent most of my time growing up sheltered in Catholic schools and all-boys private schools, surrounded by rich white pieces of shit.D: I take it you must have hated Catholic school. Did you get in to trouble a lot for having a smart mouth?G: Catholic school was way better than what came after.
At least there were girls in Catholic school. I was a pretty enormous nerd, so I didn’t really start to get lippy with teachers until I was like 17 or so. But by that point, yeah, I was pretty fucking obnoxious.
I got a detention for “casting a spell” on my English teacher.D: Did you go to college, and if so what did you major in?G: I went to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Majored in film. Now I’m a temp receptionist. I wonder if I made the right decision?D: Did you work at all in any position of the film/television/commercial industry?G: I did some production assistant work when I first moved to New York, and I hated it more than anything else I’ve ever done ever.
It’s amazing to me how much bullshit people will put up with just so they can “work on a movie/TV show.”Honestly, I didn’t really stick around long enough to deal with anything other than nothing to do and really shitty hours. But the tone for that shit is set right off the bat, “You are working on a television show, and you should feel HONORED to give up 16 hours of your day!” The magic of being a part of a British dating show wore off in about 4 minutes.D: When did you first move to New York?G: I moved back to Baltimore when I got out of college, then a room in an apartment full of friends of mine opened up in Queens about a year later, so I jumped on it. I really didn’t have a reason for coming here, but most of my college friends were here, and I was really into what was going on pop punk wise in New York/New Jersey (bands like The Ergs!, The Unlovables, Dirt Bike Annie, etc.), at the time.D: Do you remember the first time you saw The Ergs! And met Mikey?G: I either met Mikey at an Ergs! Show in Kutztown, PA, or a Dirt Bike Annie show at North Six in Brooklyn. I can’t really remember which came first. The first time I saw The Ergs!
Was at that Kutztown show. I got their first 7” in the mail on my 21st birthday, and it was pretty much the most exciting thing I’d heard in a couple of years, so a few weeks later, I found myself driving through Pennsylvania to see them.The first time I really remember hanging out with Mike was at a big show Eric Peabody put on a few months later. After smoking a billion joints with members of Dirt Bike Annie, I stayed up way too late nerding out on pop punk records with Eric and Mikey. I was like, “this fucker’s a bigger pop punk nerd than I am!” I’d always been pretty isolated, punk rock wise, so it was awesome to finally meet some folks around my age who were just as geeky about this shit.D: How did you first meet the other members of The Steinways?G: When I moved up to Queens, I knew that Jon Whoa Oh (founder of Whoa Oh Records) and Chris Grivet were nerdy pop punk dudes that lived in the neighborhood, so it wasn’t long before they were showing me around and taking me to Queers shows and what not. Michelle responded to a “hey, join my band” thing that I put up on a message board, and I was like “Whoa! A cute girl!” So yeah, she was immediately in.The band was originally me on guitar, Grivet on drums, Michelle on guitar and Jon on bass. That was probably the line up for about a year, and man were we shitty.
Something needed to change. Jon had the misfortune of not being a drummer or a really cute girl. Michelle switched to bass, and Azeem joined in 2005 or maybe the end of 2004.
He had been in The Widows, who played their first ever show at The Steinways first ever show.D: Were The Steinways the first band you were in?G: I played in a band called The Kevins right before college in Baltimore and a band called Steve McQueen while I was in college. Neither were really “real” bands, more assemblages of friends who I’d begged to play music with me. Neither band recorded anything, and between the two, we probably played like 12 shows.D: Was the first tour you did with The Steinways what you'd expected it to be?G: The first one was great.
We went with The Unlovables, Zack Gontard from Off With Their Heads filled in on guitar for them, it was a fun bunch of folks to be out with. The four of us that would eventually form House Boat spent most of the tour together in the “smoking car,” so that was cool.D: You've said most of the low points of The Steinways revolved around alcohol. Can you elaborate at all?G: Haha, did I say that? It’s 40,000% true. If you’ve seen The Steinways or House Boat or whatever bullshit I’ve done, you know that I like to talk on stage. That plus a massive amount of alcohol can lead to mistakes. I’ve said a lot of dumb stuff, and every once in a while I say some dumb stuff that makes someone upset.D: Anything you'd care to repeat?G: Not really!D: When I was doing some research before this interview, I found The Steinways have a page on vh1.com of all places.
It says you played a basement in Chicago where members of Screeching Weasel used to live. What's the story behind this?G: I forget how it got set up, but the Chicago stop on The Unlovables/Steinways tour was Jughead’s basement. I think Dan Vapid was living there at the time too.
It was pretty fun; we barbecued and hung out watching “Some Kind Of Monster” in the living room and then played a show that night. I forget if The Methadones played, but Even In Blackouts definitely did. There are clips on youtube of The Unlovables and us from that show.D: What was everyone's opinion on Some Kind of Monster?G: Well, it’s more or less the best movie of all time, so we’re obviously all very fond of it. I highly recommend the deleted scene with Ja Rule to anyone who’s foolish enough to have not checked it out already.D: Yes the recording of 'We Did It Again'! I love how when they're recording it, Ja Rule (or someone in his posse) says it's gonna be the next 'We Are The Champions' and talks about how he sees it getting played every time the Lakers win a title.
Metallica bopping their heads to show they're down with the rap part is great too.G: Yeah, it’s easily the best song I’ve ever heard in my entire life.D: Back to the subject of Screeching Weasel, The Steinways were joined on stage by Ben Weasel in 2007, how did he become aware of the band and meet you guys?G: I don’t really know how he came across us, but he just kind of contacted me one day and asked if we’d maybe want to play some songs with him at Insub Fest. I definitely had to read the e-mail like five times before I really understood that, yes, the dude from Screeching Weasel wants my really shitty band to play my favorite songs ever with him. That whole thing was really fun and really awesome for all four of us.D: At that point did you really feel The Steinways were 'really shitty'?G: I don’t think there was a point at which I DIDN’T think The Steinways were really shitty.
That probably had something to do with how shitty we were. I was definitely nervous about playing with Ben because I never thought the four of us were particularly good at playing our instruments together at the same time.D: Have you talked to Ben since then? Is the artwork of the new House Boat album a slap at him?G: I haven’t talked to Ben in a while. I think it’s a major bummer that there’s been so much bullshit, gossip and nonsense surrounding him over the past few years, but it sort of seems like that’s what he’s after to a certain degree. I would’ve loved to do some more stuff with him, but we approach music from way different angles, so anything we’d talked about at first fizzled pretty quickly. He’s one of my favorite songwriters of all time though, and that definitely hasn’t changed.The album art definitely isn’t supposed to be a big “fuck you” to Ben or anything.
It was kind of just a dumb idea that grew out of some drunken conversations at a show we played in Philly a couple of years ago. When we recorded the record and came up with the artwork, all that South by Southwest bullshit hadn’t happened yet, and there was way less “controversy” surrounding Ben. I feel like the cover seems more pointed now that that shit’s happened, but, yeah, it’s just a dumb joke.D: So there were talks about doing a band or album with him?G: We talked real briefly about maybe doing something together, but never to the point that we even really figured out what that thing would be. I’m probably not well suited to be working with anyone whose musical career is an actual career.D: Since The Steinways breakup in 2009 how many one offs has the band reunited for?G: We did a set at a show in New York a few years ago that was the original Steinways (me, Michelle, Chris and Jonnie Whoa Oh), but the only real “reunions” we’ve done were Insub Fest 2010 and last year’s Don Giovanni showcase. We’ve been asked to do a couple of other things, but the Don Giovanni show was a train wreck, and I don’t think any of us are super eager to revisit that. Then again, next year is the 10th anniversary of the band.D: You mentioned earlier that you thought The Steinways were shitty; do you consider House Boat shitty?G: Nope, not really.
Screeching Weasel T Shirt
We’re not much of a live band, but that’s more due to the fact that we play together like three times a year and have had two full band practices over the course of our existence. But this is pretty much my ideal scenario, band wise. I like our records, and I couldn’t pick better guys to play with.D: Why use Zack, a guitar player from Minnesota, for a band from New York?G: The whole point of House Boat, for me, was getting to play music with whomever I wanted to, and those people happened to be Mikey, Zack and Azeem. When the band started, Zack was more or less always on tour and Mikey was also living in Minnesota. I definitely never planned on us recording and playing as often as we have. I’m pretty happy with how it’s all worked out. Zack’s actually in Florida now, and Mikey floats back and forth between Jersey and Queens, so we’re actually geographically closer than we ever have been.D: Do you know why Zack left Off With Their Heads?G: I don’t really want to speak for him, but I can definitely say him leaving that band was amicable, un-dramatic and all that good stuff.
I think he just wanted to not tour all the time and do more normal person stuff. He’s in school in Florida at the moment.D: So if you could have the lifestyle of someone who squeaks by from constantly touring instead of working conventional jobs would you take it?G: Nope. I kind of hate touring. Well, that’s not totally true, but I get really antsy and not stoked to be on the road after a week or so. I think doing it every night for a couple of months would suck all the fun out of it for me. Doing a week or so at a time once every year or so is pretty ideal for me.D: A lot of House Boat songs deal with underemployment.
Do you ever consider going back to school and getting a better degree?G: I’ve been temping for like 8 years at this point. I’m either that or unemployed. At the moment, I work as a receptionist at a lab in Brooklyn. Come June, I will most likely not be working as a receptionist at a lab in Brooklyn.That said, if I thought it made sense to go back and get a graduate degree in something, I would, but I’m pretty sure they don’t have masters programs for comic book reading, weed smoking or pop punk songwriting.D: Do you write all of the House Boat lyrics?G: For the most part, yeah. Other than like three lines, Azeem wrote all the lyrics for the ones he sings lead on.D: House Boat’s lyrics often paint a narrative of depression and self-loathing. Do you write from an autobiographical perspective or from someone else's point of view?G: I’m pretty self-obsessed, so they’re definitely all about me. I get pretty sad sometimes!
The songs are where the bad feelings go. When you write a shitty song about how shitty you feel it makes you feel better.