Bruce Stuckey.
By Andy
As There's Something Hard in There rolled into its 11th year in 2021, we eased up on the gas pedal a bit due to time constraints and COVID limiting our show intake. It's been a long ride for us in the blog realm and we're fortunate to have produced copious photos and interviews of and with some of our favorite musicians from the past and present.
Running this blog has solidified our affinity for music and taken it further than we ever dreamed. We're still as passionate about music -- seeing a band tear the roof off the place or having an inspiring chat with an artist -- as we always have been, beginning a multitude of years ago.
We're in this for the long haul and will keep TSHIT going until the fucking wheels fall off.
Here's some quotes of note from a handful of interviews we conducted this year. Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!
BRUCE STUCKEY (TOXIC REASONS)
"I've got at least two albums of material I've written over the last seven years. At least," said Stuckey, who notes that the Toxic Reasons records hanging on his wall each represent a different period of his life. There's eight studio albums and a batch of singles and EPs that fired out of the band's cannon.
"Honestly, I am happy with what I've done in the past. I would actually, honestly, like to make one more fucking record. I don't care if anybody gives a fuck, if they like it or not. As long as I like it and put it out, and actually tour it again. Maybe not the way we used to. I honestly don't think I could take that," he said with a laugh.
DAVEY GUNNER (END OF HOPE)
The former Kraut vocalist's reaction after guitarist Ken Wohlrob told him the moniker, End of Hope, whose music is an amalgamation of Black Flag meets Motorhead: "I guess, because in a lot of ways, I'm a pessimist. You know, gloom and doom sort of, I guess gives me my fuel. So I heard that, I was like, 'That just nails it, you know?' But in the same sense, you got to have hope -- that's the one thing that keeps you going."
JEFF PEZZATI (NAKED RAYGUN)
"I think as long as we have good new songs, it gets me excited again," said the vocalist/songwriter regarding the band's recent solid album, "Over the Overlords."
Former Naked Raygun bassist Pierre Kezdy, who passed away from cancer in 2020, wrote some songs and played on the album. Pezzati noted: "He told us before he passed it was important that we get it out and we're doing our best to get it out. And the fact that he wrote a couple of songs for it is really great because he was such a great songwriter. He wrote 'Vanilla Blue' and he wrote 'Treason' by himself and he wrote 'Home' and some really great songs along the way."
FRANK AGNEW (GREG ANTISTA AND THE LONELY STREETS)
The former Adolescents guitar slinger's feelings about the Antista songs on the stellar album "Under the Neon Heat": "There's two things I liked about them immediately: they were simple (and) these are really catchy, good songs. They're sing-along songs. I thought the lyrics were really strong. The overall feel of the songs is upbeat, which I thought, 'Wow, we could all really use this right now.' Because everything had been kind of dark and stuff. And then, of course, the pandemic hit. I also liked it because it allowed me to kind of do a lot of different guitar stuff on it that I normally wouldn't be able to do, but those songs kind of left it wide open for that."
