Discussing just about everything with Milo Aukerman of the Descendents / Interview

Milo Aukerman with the Descendents in Seattle. (All Cat Rose photos)

Text: Andy; Photos: Cat Rose


The young man who was so shy that his eyes were fixated on the floor during most of his early performances is now leading the charge — face forward with bolts of confidence — as the Descendents unleash their music to thousands of fans at a time.

At age 18, Milo Aukerman’s enthusiasm earned him the vocal spot with the Manhattan Beach, CA-based band and those initial gigs and small crowds were tough to get a handle on, but the bespectacled singer forged on. While at first they “couldn’t sell out a telephone booth,” the times and crowds soon caught up to and latched onto the Descendents. Early fans’ pocket band has become a group for ALL, and Aukerman notes that they continue to satisfy and challenge themselves and their followers as the years add up. It’s go time… all the time… for all times.

Presently, the band is writing a new album and Aukerman is stoked to call music a career. He put his doctorate in biology into action at places like DuPont in his now home state of Delaware, but his science gig is now a piece of the past. 

On the full-time music career choice, he said: "That's what I've been kind of dancing around for the past, at least for the last 10 years. Because we started the band back up in 2010 and it's been just a blast ever since, so much fun, so why not just do it whole hog and just go for it?"

I caught a bunch of the band’s raucous and ultra-sweaty early gigs in the SoCal area — including a killer one on the Strand on the beach in Manhattan in 1982 — and my wife Cat and I continue to check them out to this day.

I phoned Aukerman, 56, last Sunday and here’s what we gabbed about. It was a talk filled with energy and laughter about how we’ve all grown into top-notch adults. Well, maybe.


**Can you remember your intro to music, maybe hearing stuff on the radio with your parents back in the day?

I was a big AM radio fan. Growing up, it was 'KHJ! 93.' And I think that was before FM kind of really expanded it's whole deal. Once FM was more of a thing, then it was KROQ, and KROQ, of course, then just became Rodney's (Bingenheimer) show for me. You know, Rodney on the Roq. A lot of radio listening, and I, curiously enough, I still listen to radio a lot even though there's so many other options. I could stream, but I still find myself listening to radio. There's something very appealing about just turning something on and, for free, listening to music, and they're gonna throw something different at you, hopefully, if it's a good station.

I was definitely raised on AM radio and the Beatles and all that stuff that was happening. Some of that bad '70s music still sticks with me, and when that gets played, you go, 'Yeah, this sucks,' but it's in your blood a little bit and you gotta listen to it anyways.

The punk rock movement for me didn't kick in until probably '79, I wasn't really that exposed to it before that point, so I was listening to more pop music. I had a brief dabble into kind of prog rock and came out the other side of that and wanted to hear something harder and then started listening to new wave at that point. So KROQ definitely primed me for the new wave. And then the new wave music was great, but it didn't have loud enough guitars and wasn't fast enough, and ended up listening to X and the Germs and that kind of stuff and Black Flag.

That's kind of where I was primed and receptive to listening to a single that Bill (Stevenson) sold me at school, which was the Descendents as a trio. I was like, 'Cool, these guys are my friends and they're like making this music, it's cool.'

**When did you first start singing? Were you singing around home, like school choir, anything like that?

No, not really. I took a little piano growing up, I dabbled in a variety of instruments... literally just dabbled in because I would take a lesson and be like, 'This is boring.' (laughs) I think I took piano maybe for about a year, but I think I took sax for half a year and I took guitar for A lesson.

I kind of sang in the school choir for a year and did A musical with the local repertory theater. Not playing a major part or anything. So I dabbled in theater and musicals, but it wasn't really my bag so much, especially when I became a teenager. When you're younger and you're not self-conscious, you can do that kind of stuff, and then the teen years hit and you're just like, 'This is so uncool, I can't do it anymore.' (laughs) So that kind of stopped pretty much around age 12. Then I kind of was just a music listener all through high school and then senior year essentially, I wanted to be more than a listener, I wanted to kind of participate.

That came about, obviously, through the Descendents. And it came about without me really even thinking about it. I just saw that everyone else was in it. Bill and Frank (Navetta) and Tony (Lombardo) were doing it, I thought, 'I could probably do this, too.' As a trio, they were doing a practice, and I would go watch them practice 'cause they were all of a sudden my favorite band after I heard that single. They had a mic set up and I said, 'Look, I'll sing this song, just 'cause (I'll) give you a break.' Almost a boastful kind of thing, 'Hey, I learned the words to this, so let me give it a crack.' I think in their mind, 'Well, he can't sing, but he's got a lot of energy...' It wasn't really even a tryout, it was more just me having some fun, but they obviously thought, 'Well, maybe this guy should just do it.'


**You never know the way things happen. I'm always interested in things just happen naturally and maybe it was meant for you to jump up there and give it a shot, and there you go.

If it was a formal tryout, I think it would have maybe even ruined the energy. Because we were friends, and because I was obviously doing it out of sheer enthusiasm and joy of doing it, they saw it kind of fit the modus operandi of the band, which is just go out there with a bunch of energy and have fun and not worry so much if you're hitting the notes enough. At that point, I was definitely not hitting the notes (laughs).


**What was the musical you were in?

Down in Manhattan, on I think it was Valley Drive had a little theater, it was right next to this big baseball diamond. They would put on plays now and again and I did 'The Music Man,' I was in the chorus. I did 'A Christmas Carol,' I was Tiny Tim in that; of course, I was very young, I was like 10 years old. Those are the two that I can remember.

As I got older and it became less cool, I was gonna try out for this one, and this is just a completely random memory, called 'The Globolinks.' And just having to sing the main song, which was like, (chants) 'The Globolinks! The Globolinks!'... I said, 'No, I'm not gonna do this. Nope, not gonna do this.' It was a little too much. So I was not cast in the 'The Globolinks.' And that was the end of that.


**The one that got away.

The one that got away, yeah. (laughs)

*What singers really made an impact on you, especially when you started to go see live music? Who really turned you on there?

From the new wave period, of course, Mark Mothersbaugh, loved DEVO. Once I started listening to punk, John Doe, he's such a great singer, he can sing anything and it's just gonna sound like he's seducing the hottest woman in the room or whatever. (laughs) He's just got that killer voice. You know, Darby Crash, his lyrics... He kind of also just brought in the whole notion of like, just fuckin' belt it, don't worry about singing a note; but if you've got these great words and this great snarl, you can just bring it.

Of the Black Flag singers, for me it's Dez (Cadena) only. It's gotta be Dez. And Dez is someone who... I listened to 'Police Story' (and other songs) and then within three months, I joined the Descendents. There's some obvious Dez kind of rubbing off on me on the early Descendents recordings, for sure.


**Dez is the one for me. Whenever the conversation comes up about favorite Flag singers, I always go with Dez.

He sounds like he's gonna axe murder you every time he opens his mouth. It's so good.

The first time I saw Black Flag was Polliwog Park. At that point, I was still a new waver, completely new wave, and I listened to this band and was like, 'Whaaaaat?' It was totally over my head, but look back and go, 'Wow, that was kind of a historical moment and everyone talks about the Polliwog Park thing.' I witnessed it as someone who didn't really get it -- yet.

But then when Dez started singing, I started listening to recordings. And the second time I saw Black Flag was actually at the Church when Dez was practicing with them. I remember they'd have these rehearsal rooms that were the size of your closet, and all four of them are piled in there and I'm kind of cowering in the corner, leaning up against a stinky carpet that they hang, and Dez is just spitting out words above me, and it's just like, 'Fuuucccck!' It was like, 'OK, this is how it goes. This is how they do it.' It was so in your face. So that was my first encounter with Dez in the practice room, just hearing him lay it down.


**Your first gig with the Descendents, let's go back a little. What was it like on stage for you at first? Did you exude confidence or were you maybe just kind of going with it to see where it takes you?

I probably stared at the floor the whole time or faced the band. Those are my two options, what else can I do?

The two that I can remember the best as being candidates for the first show: one was at the Hong Kong Cafe opening up for the Urinals, where there were like maybe 20 people in the audience. There is no kind of raised stage, as far as I can remember. If there was a raised stage, it was like five inches, so you're literally just on the head level as everyone in the audience, so I just couldn't look out there. Even though it was only 20 people, I was so inhibited, so I must have stared at the floor the whole time.

The other show that I can remember is that we used to practice down in Long Beach... this band The Stingers had a rehearsal area that also had a stage, so we would actually rehearse on their little baby stage. And occasionally, they'd do shows there, so we opened up for The Stingers. That probably was the first show, even though it was more of a rehearsal spot as opposed to a real club.

Having done some of that musical stuff, I knew that performing was a thing that could be done, but because of the onset of adolescence, I actually became shyer as an adolescent than I was prior to being an adolescent. So I was fairly shy through high school, and when I joined the band, I was still a shy person, so I was the least likely person to be considered the frontman of a band. It was definitely not something that came naturally to me. I would say, over the course of many, many, many years, shed some of that away. The way I shed that shyness away is to kind of put on that aggressive, angry, punk outlook. Obviously, the lyrics were that way, and that's just the way I tried to break out of that shell, just to be angry. There was not a lot of banter with the audience, it was more like, 'Here's our shit, deal with it and we're just gonna be in your face.'


**Kind of growing up even more through the band.

Yeah, I can credit the band with so many wonderful things in my life, and one of them is just that it helped me kind of get out of my shell and helped me to combat that shyness that everyone feels in them, I'm sure. I wasn't gonna break out of that shyness in any kind of a school environment or any kind of a social environment. It was gonna be music, basically. It was something that allowed me to grow as a person, and be more open and be more out there. Interact with people.

**What are some of the other things that you learned about yourself and about life through the band over the years?

A lot of the learning has been in more recent years. I had a misperception about what a career in music could be like. I didn't wanna even entertain or delve into what a career in music could be. I'm learning now that rather than being something that's gonna bring you down or cause you to be a drug addict or something that's just gonna put you in the poor house -- you take it on as a challenge. (Bill was worried and asked him if this new career path was going to stop satisfying him intellectually, but Milo said it was more challenging than ever.) You find challenges in whatever you do and you're always trying to better yourself, and so with music, it's no different. This music 'career' thing can be a good thing for me and could be a good thing for my family and could be a good thing for me as a person.


**What do (your kids) think about you doing this? Are they stoked that their dad's a singer? (He has a 14-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son.)

When we started back in 2010, my daughter was 6 and she had heard some of the music. We started playing her punk rock pretty early, and she actually liked a lot of that really early punk rock. She actually plays the French horn herself and she's got a certain musical side of her, and she was listening at the age of 6, going, 'That's cool, why don't you go play this live?' And I thought, 'Oh, well OK then.' (laughs)

We hadn't been playing live. Obviously, Bill and the band ALL had been doing ALL for awhile, and ALL had kind of fizzled out in probably the mid-2000s. Bill was producing bands and that's all he was doing and then he had his health scare in 2009-2010. When my daughter said that, I thought this could be a good time to do this. I had kind of reconnected with Bill. When he recovered from his brain tumor, the whole band was just like, 'Oh my God.' It was like this epiphany for us, 'We got our drummer back.'  And I'm like, 'Let's go play with our drummer who just recovered.' It all just seemed to make a lot of sense at that point.

I rediscovered my love for them as people. We had never not been friends, but because I was pursuing another career, we had lost touch with each other to a certain degree. And when we started back in, it was just like, this is so right and we need to just keep doing it. To make a long story short, my daughter was the one who kind of spurred me into thinking, 'Let's play some shows out and do this.' (His son and daughter attended the gigs and watched from side stage and came out on stage to recite the 'All-O-Gistics.')

(Along with punk music, his daughter plays classical music and his son is a big hip-hop fan.)


**Do you ever find yourself singing together at home or humming a tune or sharing that love for music with each other, like a family thing?

I've done that occasionally with my daughter. I'll strum a song on guitar, if it's a song that she knows and likes, I'll say, 'Hey, play that on French horn.' 'Cause she can kind of pick it out. I'm on an acoustic guitar and she's on her French horn and I'm singing or she's singing, and that's totally cool. And of course, now I'm scheming, I'm like, 'OK, how can we do a Descendents song with some French horn in there?' (laughter)


**I was totally gonna ask you that and you went right around to it. Maybe it's in the cards.

We're writing a record now, so that's the thing, I'm thinking about the record and we've got X number of songs, and on every song, I'm thinking, 'Is this a good spot for a French horn?' (laughs)


**That's the goal now, that's the real challenge. I played some trumpet when I was a kid. I tried. I wasn't very good at it, but I remember this one time I was hanging out at SST over there on Phelan (in Redondo Beach), and Spot was really getting into me: 'You gotta get that trumpet out and figure out some Black Flag songs.' 

That sounds like Spot, that's Spot for ya. (Discusses the Minutemen adding some anarchy sax and trumpet to their songs.)

**You've guys have come a long way, not just as people and music-wise, but you're playing the big shows now. The ones that you probably never thought of back then in the practice room. How does it feel to play these big shows and how do you prepare for those? Do you get some nerves playing in front of those crowds?

Yeah, it's a little more nerve-wracking, but I also treat them as it's our chance to be a little more kind of yell to the back row. I try to stay away from the real cheesy stuff, 'Heeeey, heeey, how ya doing!?' You wanna drag as many of those people into the spirit of the moment as you can. I wanna try to make the connection with people even if they're not near the stage.

It's a different thing. What we used to do when the shows were real small, we were in this kind of small bitter band mindset of, 'Oh, we're just playing for ourselves anyways, doesn't matter,' 'cause we'd play shows where there was no one there. Rather than letting it get to us, we get out there and we stare each other in the face and put out the best show we could possibly put out. As the shows get bigger, you realize, 'Wait a minute, these people are here to have a good time and we wanna have a good time, too.' So it became more of like, let's get the party started. And that changed the mentality of what we were doing on stage. It brings new energy, too, 'cause the energy is not so much of an internal energy, but a feeding off-of-the-crowd energy. But I like it that we started out with this other kind of energy, 'cause that's the energy that's kept the band together: the energy of just being us against the world, that's a good energy when it's like the Three Musketeers and we're bros for life. We don't need the crowds to be together, we can just be together, and the crowds are just an added kind of cherry on top.

The nice thing about the crowds now is that we're older now and we want to stay relevant. It's affirmation that we can still put it out there.

I'm thinking we'll kind of just keep going with it. I don't wanna stop. I don't think we have any issues with the creative perspective, I think we tend to keep evolving as songwriters and as players. I feel like that part of it is taken care of, it's more like, 'Stay healthy everybody. Everybody, don't die.' (laughs)


**How's the voice doing after all these years, still feels good in there?

I have a better range than I did as a young person, and that's probably 'cause I learned how to sing better. I just learned some techniques to be able to sing and preserve my voice and doing warmups. Now I can hit those high notes I couldn't hit before, and that's the kind of thing where making it a career and taking on that as a challenge means taking it more seriously. Means that I can do things I couldn't even do when I was younger, so that's nice.


**That's good to show that as we get older, we can improve and be just as vital as we were growing up, if not better.

Really, it's an attitude of like, when you're young you just kind of go, 'Ehhh, I don't need to do that,' but when you get older, it's like, 'Shit, if I wanna keep going with this, I need to do whatever it takes, I need to learn those techniques.' It's kind of an old person's maturity that actually benefits the music essentially. (laughs)

My Valentine to T.S.O.L.

By Reject Girl

T.S.O.L.: Jan. 3 at The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA

SO the True Sounds of Liberty…. where oh where do I start? In 1981, one of the best, most ruling, raging records to ever be released was that first EP (on the Posh Boy label), which gave birth to that first full length LP, 1981’s "Dance with Me."

From Huntington Beach, T.S.O.L. were formed by Jack Grisham (first in the excellent Vicious Circle), Todd Barnes (RIP) on drums, Mike Roche as the bass man, and Ron Emory on guitar. Greg Kuehn would join on keyboards in 1983. The death element was always present with our men from day one, totally magnified with 1983’s "Beneath the Shadows" that they had one foot in a stanky graveyard. Jack Grisham would have been nicking everything from this graveyard, just like how he stole cars back in the day and lit them on fire. The audience was like one of those cars. Picture it: a gas guzzler from the '70s, amiss of EPA standards, smoldering toxic fumes into the air with a missing stereo…Jack Grisham standing there with an evil smile, the demon. That’s what I felt like after the show. A crazy ride I totally enjoyed.

Even the old burnout dude next to me who kept yelling out “'Flowers by the Door,' man!!!!” and needed to be told, uh, dude, wrong singer, was moved. Jack and drummer Todd left the band in 1983, a year before "Change Today?" was recorded/released in 1984. Guess what? Jack’s ex brother in-law Joe Wood took over on vocals. That must’ve made for some awkwardness. But, I digress., T.S.O.L. with the three original members and drummer Antonio Val Hernandez, were outstanding, loud, funny, and tight as hell. They mixed it up, but mostly focused on early material, largely that EP which evolved into "Dance with Me," and they threw in some other gems.

My ride with T.S.O.L. started in 1989, when I was 12, and also the same year Jack Grisham got sober. I hated my life and was miserable, coming home from school and crying every day because I was picked on by asshole kids. My parents had split up earlier that year and my mom and I had to move into my grandparents' smoke-infested house.  The realization that I was a little freak who didn’t fit in with ANYBODY really hit me that year hardcore. At home, I was picked on, too, and couldn’t do anything right, which I was developing a serious attitude about. I missed my dad, even if he was drunk. Basically, I was sad, angry, and realized I had no future. If life was going to be like this, what’s the point.

Hearing that first T.S.O.L. EP and "Dance with Me" at friend’s house saved me. The opening bass line of "World War 3," having that pound my ears, which was excellent at the show by the way, what this article is really about, and of course "Abolish Government/Silent Majority," which was also the show’s closer. In their set, "In My Head" from 2001’s "Disappear" was also high point. Wow, "Sounds of Laughter" was terrific. When they played "Code Blue," which begins telling about all the girls who tried to enforce their morals and rules on a young Jack Grisham, it reminded me of how that song always made me think of what the stupid, sheep kids in junior high did to me, when I first heard it. I got the sarcasm right away about rather fucking the dead. I remember thinking there are people who write these songs who feel like I do, who see the world in the same nihilistic way. People who have also suffered at the hands and mouths of others and it changed who they are or were meant to be forever. The friend’s unscrupulous older brother lent me the first EP and "Dance with Me" on tape that day. I was hooked.

Within a year, I’d be turned on to the Damned, early Clash, the Ramones, the Pistols, Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, the Dead Kennedys, the Vandals, and the Germs. I remember picking up later T.S.O.L. records, some in the dollar bin at Tower, and being like, what happened to these guys? That aside, punk rock became EVERYTHING. Loving the more obscure stuff would follow, along with joining KFJC and doing radio shows. I started going to any punk show I could get to, trying to not be too much of a dork so that older kids (unsuccessfully) would drive me or I could sneak in, or there was an all-ages show, which were starting to happen at the time. I developed a love of beer, punk rock vinyl, and mosh pits. And punk guys. Oh, the punk rock guys. These are lifelong afflictions. I was doomed. Any movie that had to do with punk rock? Sucker! Any book or magazine even if it was a crappy source I’d realize later-done! I couldn’t absorb enough about punk rock, thanks to T.S.O.L. Still can’t. This rings true every time cool new punk rock records or reissues show up at KFJC that are discovered when I do a radio show.

As I was watching bodies fly over Jack’s head at the gig, I kind of reflected on all this that was shared above.  Damn, they are a good band. Those first three records were so solid. When Jack left the band, things changed, but they are back to true form and have been for years. Drummer Antonio Val Hernandez pounds, along with the original three members.Jack was hilarious, making fun of how politically correct everything is now and the elderly are the last group you can make fun of. He thanked the government for being the reason their mailman drummer could be with them touring and playing shows, and mentioned how Hernandez was Mike’s mailman looking in a window at his house one day and happened to see a T.S.O.L. poster on the wall. Jack raised the point about how a mailman looking in someone’s window is creepy. Mr. Grisham is still a total cut-up. He had a great bright red suit jacket with the demon embroidered on the back with T.S.O.L. 1981, who strongly resembled the "American Demon" character on the back cover of the book. (Grisham’s writing is also well worth checking out, by the way.) 

Support by Love Canal was killer. They are an excellent, tight punk rock band also from Huntington Beach, with members who’ve been in D.I., Agent Orange, Youth Brigade, and the Vandals, to name a few. Those men have an impressive resume. They came out of the same scene essentially when formed in 1982 and are friends with the band.  Perfect choice to open for T.S.O.L. and get the crowd ready. They were terrific, noisy, fast, and have a lot of really excellent material to play. Wish they could’ve played longer, love those guys. When a band leaves you wanting more, it’s a good thing. Santa Cruz’s Enemy of My Enemy also helped set the tone for the night, ending their set with a great cover of The Gits' “Second Skin.”  Kemper’s Temper was full of Cookie Monster vocals death metal, who started the show for early arrivals, around 9ish. You know everyone was just getting trashed at the upstairs bar or hanging out in front of The Catalyst. They were waiting for the goods...and the band wasn’t too happy about it, telling the crowd to move more.

It was thrilling to hear “Superficial Love,” “Wash Away”, “Sounds of Laughter”, and “Property is Theft.”  The fact that they are playing those early albums and bringing back the early LA punk rock energy really demonstrates the power and relevance of T.S.O.L., and how they’ve remained a punk rock staple for so many, including me. A few times a week I still throw on "Dance with Me" because it has lived in my head for 30 years. I play a song from the first three LPs on just about every radio show I do. With everything they’ve been through, T.S.O.L. is still loud, tight, and makes the crowd go ballistic, with the LA punk rock circular mosh pit that allows bodies to become projectiles. T.S.O.L.’s pits are legendary. Glad I remembered to take my earrings off when I came out of the bathroom between bands, cause I’ve seen "Decline" more than once. Jack getting the shit beat out of him at Zubie’s by savage cowboys in the "Cuckoo’s Nest" movie also comes to mind. Dude has been through it and is as great a frontman as ever. His vocals and the lyrics were spot on. Big props to Mike Roche’s bass, Ron Emory’s guitar, and Antonio Val Hernandez’s drumming. Greg Kuehn couldn’t make it for piano…which has been a key part of T.S.O.L.’s sound since "Dance with Me."  He’s back with them though for the SoCal shows coming up this week.

So my parting words here are go see T.S.O.L.! If for any millisecond you doubted why punk rock mattered, in which case you need an ass-beating, or thought you’d heard these songs way too many times, you will be proven wrong.

Reject Girl has been a DJ at KFJC 89.7 fm in Los Altos Hills, CA since 1996. She still loves punk rock vinyl, beer, and going to punk shows she doesn't have to sneak into anymore. T.S.O.L. rules, by the way.

Punk bands have the last laugh (or scowl): murals and signs in Hermosa Beach

At Floyd's 99 Barbershop (along with a nod to "Point Break"), 828 Pacific Coast Highway.

During our recent trip back home for Christmas, we spied music murals and signs all over Hermosa Beach, CA, from a market to a business wall to a bathroom to a parking structure. Hermosa ran Black Flag outta town and scoffed at punk rock in the early days when we were hanging around, so it's weird seeing this stuff. But it's there now and can't be ignored ... so we win. Ha ha.

Photos by Andy and Cat



At Lazy Acres Market, 2510 Pacific Coast Highway:

In the Tower 12 bar bathroom, 53 Pier Ave.:

Downtown parking structure, 13th and Hermosa Avenue:

TSHIT's Lucky 13 Photos for 2018

The Damned. (All Cat Rose photos)

It was a tough task to narrow down Cat Rose's Lucky 13 photos this year. So many great shows and so many shots to choose from. Here they are and cheers to 2019!

THE DERELICTS

ACCUSED A.D.

FASTBACKS

ELECTRIC CITIZEN

PRIMUS

GIUDA

FEAR

DESCENDENTS

DREADFUL CHILDREN

MONSTER MAGNET

GUTARA KYO

Quotes of Note from our 2018 interviews

 Tony Kinman (RIP), left, and Chip Kinman, right, with Ford Madox Ford. (Lisa Reed Kinman photo)

Chip Kinman, Ford Madox Ford and The Dils: "With The Dils, it was full speed ahead (like other punk bands), it was a lifestyle, that's all we did. You woke up, it wasn't like I'm gonna wake up and I'm not in The Dils until I go to rehearsal, I'm not in The Dils until I go to a show. You woke up and you're in The Dils. We lived in San Francisco, so it was really easy to have the feeling of revolution inside you -- musical, cultural and otherwise. Everything was new: the smell of roasting coffee was new, pesto was new, beatniks and poets who still lived in North Beach, that was new, Chinatown, all of that was new and all of that added to the sense of (cultural) revolution, like moving forward and this is real and I'm a young man and this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And that gave everything a real sense of urgency, a real sense of getting it done. And that lasted us for about a thousand nights, about three years and that was it. You always gotta know when to leave the party, and that's the trick."

(Chip's brother, bass-player and low-end vocalist extraordinaire Tony, passed away from cancer this year. Chip has some gigs planned with The Dils in the new year.)


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James Williamson on his new album with the Pink Hearts: "Maybe the beauty and the strength of this album is that it's kind of old school in a lot of ways, but by the same token, it sounds oddly current at the same time.

"It's very diverse in the material and very listenable, which really to me is key because there's so many albums that you listen to three or four tracks and that's all you'll ever listen to. This one, I feel like you can listen to the whole thing, and you can keep listening to it and it doesn't really get that old."


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Andrea Vidal, Holy Grove, on their new album: "For me, the album is a celebratory one despite the heavier sound and darker lyrics. I think when you listen to the album, you get a sense of just how excited and grateful we all were to be able to write this album. We’re not firmly entrenched in any one genre -- so for ‘II’ each of us were able to explore and create a sound that naturally represents Holy Grove as a band, and gives you some insight as to where we intend to take it."


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Andy Cairns, Therapy?: "I can sometimes look at my parents or some other parents' friends or even contemporaries of mine who are nothing to do with music and they've got themselves in such a stale rut. Samuel Beckett the writer said one time that habit is a terrible deadener. It deadens all your senses and it deadens all your energy. I think he's true, if you just get into such a routine habit, then the attrition of just the everyday, the normal, it can just eat away at your soul, and you don't learn anything new, you don't feel as if you've grown.

"I love it whenever I see like people that are 60-70 taking up new languages or deciding to go free-falling from an airplane or deciding to run a marathon or something like that. These are the things that keep you active and keep you alive."


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Lee Lawrence, Arctic Flowers: "For me it's rewarding to hone your craft and create with others. We've all become good friends and it feels great to create something that belongs to all of us. Performing is just fun and always a challenge to make it better each time, so I'm always motivated by trying to do better. I also like to create a feeling and an energy that can be shared with the audience. Seeing live music that's meaningful to be has been core to my existence and ability to survive in society and I love being able to catalyze that for others too."


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Alfie Agnew, Professor and the Madman: "We decided, 'You know what? We don't care if nobody else on the planet likes what we do.' We're gonna do what we want, exactly how we want it, with who exactly we wanna do it. If we could get Paul Gray and Rat Scabies, that's because they're the perfect people for the music we're writing. Not because of anything else. You know, it's funny, because that's what Social D, the Adolescents and all those early bands did that made them so popular. They did what they wanted to do, there was no punk guide at the time, it was being invented. That's what I think has informed me the most."


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Taiga Miyama, Criminal Code: "I think we all like writing songs, which is the plus of it. Also, I think we can all lock in on ideas of what we want and it's easy to talk about how we want to do a song or an album. I love punk songs, but it's easy to write them, so it's always a challenge to do something completely different. I think that's the important thing of being in a band, instead of just becoming a cookie-cutter, just writing the same stuff over and over."


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Kenny Chambers on reforming Moving Targets: "It's kind of funny, I hadn't played Targets songs, and then when I did 'Less Than Gravity,' that kind of got me thinking, 'I gotta try and play these songs again now.' I was just out in the back yard with the electric and I started playing punk shit, because I was thinking when I was writing these songs and playing these songs, I was listening to punk rock. Started playing the first Dead Boys record and stuff like that.

"I'll be 55 this summer, so I gotta get my chops back."

Record reviews: Western Star and Silver Screams

By Andy


Western Star: "Any Way How" LP

Saustex Records kingpin Jeff Smith told me this was gonna be a good one. After digging Western Star’s “Fireball,” my ears pricked up at the news of “Any Way How” cracking its way into existence. Simply put, this is crucial rock n’ roll with a razor-sharp country edge that can kick the shit out of most stuff on the planet these days. With J. Robbins on the Baltimore unit's side in the producing, engineering and mixing seat, WS’s Max Jeffers, Justin Myers, Bob Shade and Matt Milner have put themselves in a red-hot spot with these 10 tunes. The lyrics stick with ya, too, and “Part of the Deal” drives things home: “Once you spin the wheel you can never go back; You might land on red, you might land on black; But you learn real fast, you gotta be quick; And you’ve got to stick to your part of the deal.” (Saustex Records)


Silver Screams: “Alive in the Afterlife” EP

You can’t go wrong with Silver Screams. Whenever the Boston-based trio punches the clock, they deliver a batch of gritty, fist-pumping punk n’ roll tunes that leave you amped and ready to attack your day. Hammering on the heels of their stellar “Defective Machines” LP from 2017, the band uncorked the three-song “Alive in the Afterlife” EP in August and you’ll want to hit the repeat button a ton on this gem. The title track and “Stitches Up” jump into the fray first, and then comes the killer cover of Government Issue’s “Understand.” Yes, John Stabb (RIP) would be on board to the hilt with this choice from GI’s rockin’ “Joyride” LP from 1984. (Voodoo Lodge Records)

Going 'Straight to the Hunter' with Arctic Flowers / Interview

Alex Carroccio unleashes her emotions with Arctic Flowers. (Cat Rose photo)

By Andy

It was one of those magical "fuck yeah" experiences.

Two-fold, in fact.

Arctic Flowers was slashing through its formidable docket of thought-provoking, emotion-clawing post-punk tunes at a packed Seattle bar. People were caught up in the moment, swaying and stomping along with the band, which was giving it back -- full force. And then the Portland group digs into a song I didn't expect to hear. Is that what's really blazing its way into our ears? I believe it is. "Dreamer" from Toxic Reasons from their unsung "Within These Walls" record, one that I thought nobody celebrated but me.

And now that song has taken on new life as part of the Arctic Flowers canon on its just-released album "Straight to the Hunter," and it bristles nicely alongside infectious numbers like "Glass on Ice," "Whip Hand," "Cabinet of Masks" and seven others. The album's got fervor and melody stamped all over it and the band has taken its genre-traversing sound to new heights on this one.

Here's an email interview with guitarist Stan Wright, bassist Lee Lawrence and singer Alex Carroccio regarding "Straight to the Hunter." Cliff Martin supplies the drums for the quartet.


** What does the new album mean to you?

Stan: "Straight To The Hunter" is our third full length LP over the 10-year existence of the band. It means perseverance through years of practicing, writing, playing shows together all coming together into this representation of our ideas, struggles and love. I feel like it's our best music and some of Alex's most moving lyrics.

Lee: It feels really good to see our process come to fruition. It means a lot to me that as a group we can create a piece of art together through a collaborate process.

Alex:  "STTH" is a culmination of our personal, and more than ever before, shared experiences in and out of the band space.

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Arctic Flowers in action. (Cat Rose photo)

** What was the experience like from the songwriting process to the finish product?

Stan: It was a longer process this time. We experimented and took more time with songwriting and arrangement. Some songs came together right away while others were revisited over a year or more until they felt right.

Lee: We usually start from a basic verse and chorus framework and build around that. Usually, we develop bridges, intros and endings together by just trying different things and refining it over time. Once the song parts are flushed out, Cliff and I focus on making the drums and bass as synched up as possible. I also try to throw some weirdness in there for good measure. Other times, songwriting is pretty straight forward and comes together without a lot of extra nuance. When we recorded, though, we were still refining parts of "Husk," while other songs like "Glass on Ice" we'd been playing for more than three years.

It took a while to finish the record after we recorded in May and we decided to put out the record ourselves as we are able to distribute record fairly independently with good networks and knowledge of our musical genre. Stan and Alex both are involved in putting out other records and distributing them through their own labels and distros.

Alex: I think the hard times that set on for me during this album made the whole process warp into some sort of dreamy haze. It probably manifested lyrically into more personal lyrics.

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** What makes being in the band special? What drives you to write and then perform your songs?

Stan: Being in a band in general is such an awesome thing to me. I love being in Arctic Flowers with three other creative, fun people so much.

I love the writing process and practice is something I look forward to every week. I've written and performed music in different capacities over the past 25 years. I can't imagine not making music. I think we're simply trying to convey and share emotions and ideas with others and have some fun. Performing live is the best feeling in the world, totally unlike anything else I've experienced. I love sharing the music we've made with others and interacting with the crowd.

Lee: For me it's rewarding to hone your craft and create with others. We've all become good friends and it feels great to create something that belongs to all of us. Performing is just fun and always a challenge to make it better each time, so I'm always motivated by trying to do better. I also like to create a feeling and an energy that can be shared with the audience. Seeing live music that's meaningful to be has been core to my existence and ability to survive in society and I love being able to catalyze that for others too.

Alex: Being in the band is special because I’m with my friends working on something that belongs to us. I feel the need to be creative for many reasons but the emotional health benefits have maybe been the most surprising.

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** What have you learned on a personal level from being in the band?

Lee: I've learned (and am still learning) to be open and flexible in a collaborative process. I think it's important to be reflective on how you impact others and working on a project in a band is where collaboration is really tested. Things don't always turn out like you think they will in the songwriting process and that's not a bad thing. It usually turns out better through the collaborative process. It just takes time to see it through.

Alex: Since I’d never sang (sung? Lol.) in a band before…I have learned that I can get that personal in a public forum. It’s taught me that the scariest stuff is usually the stuff that ends up being the most satisfying or sticks with you the longest.

GLASS ON ICE
fox in coop, capsule in wine
all of the sudden I feel as though I have no spine
snake in grass, glass on ice
once great beast taken by the heist

I am but skin on bones
frightened to be alone
hot coal ash and stone
into the wind I'm blown
into dark water thrown

pretty birds sing a devious song
shadow play carries on
a simple wish to become strong
but in the snare I'm already strung
in the snare I'm already hung
in the snare I've already run straight to the hunter

what can you trust when instinct has you flee
straight to the hunter


ONE STEP
one step to the left and it all goes away

oh how I've felt it in my bones
you must have known, no way to hide my insides my face it always shows
this curse, curtains, the lows this blow that blight
the ones who struggle everyday just to feel alive

next time wont be the last time
one step to the left and it all goes away
a pace to the right and I embrace another day

toeing the line, sun hit my face
constantly walk with one foot in my grave

https://arcticflowers.bandcamp.com/