Sparkplug Threat: Ian MacKaye interview revisited

Thanks to Billy Caldwell of Sparkplug Magazine, our Ian MacKaye interview has found its way into print. Paired with a killer Joe Henderson photo of MacKaye with Embrace, you can't go wrong.

"Don't you understand? I'm a 'punk-rock god'" / A (sarcastic and serious) interview with Channel 3

Mike Magrann, top, and Kimm Gardener of Channel 3. (All Cat Rose photos)

 

By Andy

One particular night at the Cuckoo's Nest in 1981 was a lot more cuckoo than usual when Channel 3 took the stage.

This punk nightclub in Costa Mesa, Calif., was known not only for its raucous gigs, but frequent brawls between the hardcore set and the cowboys/rednecks who frequented the bar, Zubie's, across the parking lot.

There was no violence on this evening, but it's safe to say that CH3 singer Mike Magrann was in a raging mood when the band hit the stage. Fueled by some alcohol and his 21-year-old angst, the lanky, wobbly singer tossed his guitar aside and went full-grip onto the microphone stand during the set. It won't go down in history as one of the band's stellar performances, but I will always remember it well -- I was nearly banged in the head on numerous occasions by the flying mic stand. But that's punk rock for ya … those were dangerous and glorious times at the Nest.

Fast-forward to the present day, and I'm sitting across from Magrann as we discuss the history of CH3 after a razor-sharp and top-notch set at El Corazon in Seattle. The band, which nicely straddles the line between punk and rock, opened with "Best of Intentions" and concluded with "I Got a Gun."

It's nearly 1 a.m. and there are still more beers to be tossed down the hatch for the boys of CH3. Magrann and I have a good, insightful chat before I move on to guitarist Kimm Gardener, who provides another bookend-full of answers to wrap up the CH3 story (as much as I could grasp at 1 a.m. with last call approaching, anyway!).

Cheers to CH3:

Magrann and drummer Alf Silva.

** It's been a long time. I first saw you guys in '81-'82 at Godzilla's and the Cuckoo's Nest (in Southern California). What's changed since then and now? You guys are still doing this... what keeps you rolling?

Mike: It's weird in Southern California, cuz every goddamn band is playing again. I think we're a bit spoiled. I think we learned that punk rock has become almost like the blues, man. I mean, bluesmen, they don't stop. And maybe because it wasn't based on your pretty-boy image or the rock-n-roll lifestyle-- and I think punk rock has become that (blues-like). It's like fuckin' Charlie Harper (of the UK Subs, age 68) out there rockin' away. It's heartening to us-- we can still come out here and play and people show up, you know?

** You still having just as much fun as you did back then?

Mike: We do have actually much more fun nowadays than we used to because back then, it was just like, "search and destroy, we're coming to town, we want every fuckin' drink and drug and fuck every girl." And nowadays, it's like we come into cities and there's people that we've known for 30 years, and it's just like coming and visiting with friends and getting reacquainted with the city and all that. It's amazing how we get... free vacations is basically what we do.

Kimm: If we didn't have fun together, it would be the last thing we do.

** You guys all have wives and kids...

Mike: We do. Full-time jobs, wives and families. The band is kind of like our bowling league. Once a month, we're like, "Hey! You know what? We're going off for the weekend." We're out on Friday morning, we're back by Sunday evening and back at the desk by Monday morning.

** What do your kids think of dad still playing the rock?

Mike: It never fails, and we've talked to every punk-rock dad out there, and the kids are just like, "Dad, you're so lame." (Laughter) And I'm like, "Don't you understand? I'm a 'punk-rock god.'" And they're like, "Dad, come on, your hair is grey." So, you can never win over a teenage girl.

Kimm: My kids are very supportive of it, and they kind of love the rock-n'-roll thing. And you know what? How could you not? I think rock n' roll is such a key thing about life. I grew up in the age and era of KISS and Aerosmith and knowing that that was important stuff... we're small time to that, but it's good to have them know that music makes a difference in life. Music's the soundtrack of life. What you hear affects how you do things. We hope that we're part of it.

**  You and Kimm have known each other since grade school (second grade). What keeps you guys together and having such a good camaraderie still? You guys on stage are making jokes, smiling at each other.

Mike: In any band, I think the personal chemistry is much more important than any type of musicianship or business relationship. We're just best friends, so if we weren't doing this, we'd probably be on the same softball team or something else. Throughout the years, we've had session guys come in and out of the band, and if you don't click, it doesn't work. So, this lineup of the band, we can all travel together and just hang out-- everybody's on the same level. It's so crucial for a band to be able to do that. (Drummer Alf Silva and bassist Anthony Thompson round out the band, which has a stellar new single and EP, "Land of the Free," out on Hostage Records.)

(Kimm and I) We kind of look over at each other and it's like, "Can you believe we're doing this at 50 years old, man?" It's great.

Kimm: It's uncanny, because we're still best friends-- we don't talk every day, but we e-mail every day. We hang out with each other and our families. When we tour with the four of us, we have two hotel rooms (and Mike and I share a room) because we know each other so well -- it's like brothers.
We've had many, many brawls over the years, and like any good relationship, you have to be ready for the good and the bad that comes out of it.

Bassist Anthony Thompson

 

**  You guys have gone through a lot of changes. Obviously starting out in the early '80s as a hardcore band and then you went with the hair and the cowboy boots and wrote some rock songs. Do you still embrace every phase of Channel 3? Are you proud of everything?

Mike: You see that tonight we played everything, and we love every phase of it. I know a lot of bands who kind of shy away from their "sellout years," but for us, we had a blast in those (mid-'80s) years. People say, "Oh, you guys were metal" or something, but we really (weren't). The look changed a little bit and we tried to expand, but we always wrote songs...

** Good songs, the whole way, I think. I was on board with you guys the whole way. I loved it.

Mike: Production really changed things, you're like, "Oh, this isn't a punk song, this is a rock-n'-roll song." The producers would try to polish it up a little but, but we play 'em live -- we play "The Last Time I Drank" (and "Indian Summer") ... they're just Channel 3 songs to us.

We're suckers for Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, all those bands. Eventually, you write a song that's more poppy and then there's people saying, "Oh, you know what? Maybe you guys are more than a thrash band. Maybe we can do this, why don't you guys grow your hair out?" ...that kind of shit. But it always comes down to, we're all the same four dudes in the garage writing those same songs, gettin' drunk, just hanging out with each other.

** I know that you're an English major from Long Beach State -- and obviously, lyrics are crucial. Where do you get your inspiration for that? A lot of straight-forward things, a lot of tongue in cheek in there at times...

Mike: When you're a college kid in school, it's like, "Oh man, I've got such important things to say." Punk rockers in general, they tend to feel more and inspect things more, and back then I had the English-major curse of saying, "I wanna be profound." Probably since then, I've backed off a bit. If you're gonna write a song, you might as well put something that might catch somebody out there. And through the years, it's flattering and heartening that people write letters and they send e-mails and go, "That song just spoke to me." Wow -- that's the biggest compliment I could ever have.

**  I noticed that you were wearing your Bukowski shirt earlier... the Bukowski Tavern out of Boston. My wife and have been there, as well. There was a Bukowski reference in one of the songs on the last album. How did he come into play?

Mike: Bukowski's an easy reference now, and we almost had to back off when all the hipsters got onto Bukowski, but I've been reading Bukowski for years. Actually the Bukowski reference was in the "Jim Harrison song," (who is) one of my favorite writers, and so it's always great when somebody catches that stuff (the line is "Save me Chinaski!"). But Bukowski represents the punk rocker. That's the man.

** The legacy of Channel 3, how would you like to best be remembered as?

Mike: It's the songs that are gonna have to exist and speak for us. (From vinyl to CD to digital and online) We started thinking, "My god, it's just gonna live forever." For better or worse, we're gonna have a body of work out there that people will look at and we hope that it just comes through. We're just a couple of kids that fuckin' had a blast.

 

 

There's Something 'Heart' in There

Ann and Nancy Wilson. (All Cat Rose photos)

By Cat

This morning, Andy went out for coffee and called back that we had something to do at 2 p.m. today.
 
Ann and Nancy Wilson from Heart were going to be talking at Barnes & Noble in Northgate (Seattle) at that time promoting their new book,"Kicking and Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul and Rock & Roll."  You cannot pass up the iconic female rock legends, especially when it is just around the corner from our house. 

I have personally dug Heart since hearing "Barracuda" for the first time when I was a youngin' in the '70s and loving that it was a woman singing.  I, of course, had heard other woman singers, but nothing like the "balls" to the wall wailing of Ann Wilson; and when I found out that it was Nancy playing guitar like that, I was blown away.  I think that is when the incessant pleas to my father started asking for a guitar.  Unfortunately, that never happened for me back then, but much like Ann and Nancy discussed today, I also never understood why being a woman would get in the way of doing anything I wanted to do.  After wanting to also be a guitar hero, I later announced to my father that I was going to be an NFL quarterback.

  
Ann and Nancy spoke briefly about "Kicking and Dreaming..." --with co-author Charles Cross--then took questions.  Unfortunately, the PA system sucked and they could not get it any louder. We figured that if they let Ann and Nancy look at it, they would have cranked it.  When people were complaining for it to be louder, Cross said this was as loud as it was going to get.  Andy spouted that "I believe these amps go to 11"--in a wanna-be fake English accent (like Nigel from "Spinal Tap").  He got a burst of laughter from the nearby crowd.

One of the things they spoke about was their early beginnings, and later success, in the male-dominated rock business.  Ann summed it up by saying, "It was an unkillable drive that Nancy and I had...it was (meant) to be".

A heavy duty hike up the Iron Mtn

 

Iron Mtn's Barry Cavener, left, Scott Carlson and Bill Tuck. (All Cat Rose photos)

 

Who needs a big crowd when you've got eight hands of doom pummeling your brain?

Iron Mtn gave us and a few others the pounding metal treatment on a recent frigid Sunday night at the Highline in Seattle. No vocals, just four instruments working their way up your spine and into the dark corners of your mind. These guys are a slay team supreme.

Making the trip up from LA were There's Something Hard in There buddy Bill Tuck (guitar), Barry Cavener (guitar), Paul Michael (drums) and Scott Carlson (bass/Moog).

Do yourself a favor and check out these fine lads at their Bandcamp page.

As always, here's some Cat Rose pics.

Spooky punk fliers from the TSHIT crypt

Happy Halloween! (a little early, but what the hell)

Saint Vitus swings the hammer of doom / Interview

Saint Vitus' Dave Chandler. (All Cat Rose photos)

By Andy

Black Flag gigs were always memorable. You knew you were gonna get raging tunes in your face and would be getting knocked about when you ventured near the stage -- the best place to fully experience the mayhem, of course.

But those gigs also bummed out most of the punk crowd when Greg Ginn and company invited bands like Saint Vitus, the Minutemen and other different-sounding groups to open some of the shows.

I dug it because the Flag crew was challenging people and seeing if they would open their minds to accept the opening bands. I was on board with some doom metal and funky tunes to set the stage for the evening.

Saint Vitus, especially, always intrigued me with their wigged-out hair, headbands, boots and dark tunes matched with wailing vocals.

Scott "Wino" Weinrich.

Hailing from Redondo Beach, Calif., I saw them around the area every so often and noticed them popping into The Thirsty Club (classic dive bar) and Rod's Char-broiler (stellar greasy spoon) on occasion.

So, when Cat and I attended Saint Vitus' recent gig at The Highline in Seattle, we hoped that Vitus would break into its Flag cover of "Thirsty and Miserable" to take us back to our SoCal homeland. Score!

The 33-year-old band, featuring original members Dave Chandler (guitar) and Mark Adams (bass) along with Scott "Wino" Weinrich (vocals) and Henry Vasquez (drums), tore through songs from the past to the present, including some of our favorites like "White Stallions" and "War is Our Destiny."

Before the gig, I spoke with Adams... and Cat took a handful of photos to document the evening.

Mark Adams.

* What was it like for you guys being around that (punk) scene back then?

We weren't exactly the most welcome sight in the world, but we had fun and enjoyed it and eventually the other bands grew to like us and they had fun, so I think it all worked out. It was a big part (of our history) and it helped us get to where we got today.

* What did you learn from playing some of those different kinds of shows?

Don't be afraid to be different, do your own thing and not really give a shit what people say.

* I remember distinctly there was that Mi Casita show with Flag and Redd Kross and a bunch of those bands. I think you guys played first and I think Huskers played after you guys.

Yeah, that wasn't a good show. We got in a fight with the bouncers, a guitar got stolen and a bunch of other shit that night.

 

 

* What were some of the memorable shows back in the early days?

I remember going down to San Diego with Saccharine Trust, us, Flag, DC 3-- down there doing some shows was really cool. Plus just doing all the Flag tours in general, was a lot of fun.

* Over the years, you guys got a big following, and where you stand today, you guys are revered as being some of the originators. How does it feel to still be doing this today?

Everything's just fucking pretty crazy. It's almost like a time machine going backwards, but instead of nobody caring, people care now -- it's pretty far out.

* Did you ever think starting out that people would catch on eventually?

You always hope, but it gets to a certain point, you figure it ain't gonna go no farther than that. Especially after you quit like we did for 10 years and didn't do nothing. So it's a big surprise to be able to come back and do all this stuff.

Henry Vasquez.

 

* With a new album out ("Lillie: F-65"), what does that mean to you guys to be still putting out new music?

It's cool, it's the first one in 17 years, so it means a lot that we can go out there and do our thing--and people are willing to buy it.

* (As a tip) to younger bands, what does it take to still be doing it?

It's just whatever you feel in your heart at the time, I guess... if your heart says do it, do it.

EyeHateGod's Mike IX Williams: Music on the brain ----- All the time / Interview

Mike IX Williams with EyeHateGod in Seattle. (Andy photo)

 

By Andy

The expression "when one door shuts, another one opens" couldn't be more true when applied to the life of Mike IX Williams, raging vocalist for EyeHateGod.

At the age of 12 in 1980, the youngster and some buddies ran away from a boys home near New Orleans, blazing a three-mile path to a rock club where Black Flag was playing.

"We just stood outside and listened to the band, and every now and then, the door would open and I could see them and it was with Dez (Cadena) in the band. So, I can kind of say I've seen Black Flag with Dez live," Williams, 44, said in a recent phone interview a few weeks after Cat and I met the man at a pair of EyeHateGod gigs in Seattle.

While admiring a dark, rainy Saturday afternoon outside his window in Louisiana, he continued about his first Black Flag experience:

"I just remember, it blew me away, it was so intense. You know the song they have, it never ended up on anything but compilations, that song 'Machine'? They did that, and that just changed my life immediately when I heard that song. The way it was structured (was impactful)."

Williams had already listened to bands like the Clash, Sex Pistols, the Ramones and Stiff Little Fingers, but Black Flag's music was faster, stronger, wilder and unique and was "a turning point right there for me, musically."

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and the surrounding area and caused massive flooding, death and destruction. Williams survived, but was left homeless when his house mysteriously burned down and he was also jailed on a narcotics charge during this time.

And then another door creaked open when his future wife, Michelle Maher-Williams, regularly visited him in prison and got him through a "horrific" time. They married three years ago and now live about an hour outside of New Orleans in a home in the woods near the towns of Mandeville and Covington, situated on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain.

"I attribute the hurricane to a lot of positive things, honestly," Williams said. "Of course, there's tons of negative stuff that goes with it, but as I get older I find myself trying to be a little more positive about life than I used to be when I was 18 and just wanted to die. You know, when you got that attitude and you just don't give a fuck? Whatever happens happens. As you get older, you kind of start wanting to live a little bit.

"My whole life took a complete opposite (path) after that storm," he continued, adding that forming the punk band Arson Anthem with Phil Anselmo (guitar), Hank Williams III (drums) and Collin Yeo (bass) was part of the healing process.

All of Williams' possessions were destroyed in the fire, including 25 years' worth of records he collected, so while staying at Anselmo's house they went through his vinyl archives and thus gained inspiration to set Arson Anthem ablaze.

"I'm like, 'Whoa, man, I need this again, and I need this again and I need this again,' and 99 percent of the stuff I picked was Sheer Terror, Agnostic Front, Negative Approach, die kreuzen, Void -- the list goes on forever, like Celtic Frost and tons of other stuff," Williams recalled. "We just said, 'Man, let's do that project we've always wanted to do, just do a straight-up hardcore band.'"

Williams noted that the band moniker popped into his head one morning when he awoke from slumber, and added that both he and Anselmo have experiences of houses catching fire. There's also the connotation of a rebellion or riot, Williams added, which is "something I hold dear to my heart."

 

Arson Anthem is on hold for now while Anselmo jams with Down, Williams III rips it up with his band and EyeHateGod does its sludgy, grimy metal-punk thing.

"It means everything to me. It's my life. I don't know how to do anything else," Williams said about EyeHateGod. "First, it was a big Melvins influence and the Obsessed, and there was a small period where all these slower bands had a guy who really (sang). I always used to think Jimmy (Bower, guitarist) wanted me to sing like Wino or something like that type of singing. And he was like, 'No, man, just do what you're doing' because that's where the punk rock, hardcore side of me came out.

"I guess the two just fit together somehow-- it was just a chance that we took," he added about the punk and metal stylings. "Just screaming-- this hardcore voice over slow, doomier stuff. Taking the Melvins to a different, sicker level is kind of what we were trying to do, and I guess we kind of achieved that."

EyeHateGod has certainly forged its slimy path in the living world a lot longer than original singer Chris Hilliard had anticipated when he ended up in a mental ward and emerged as a born-again Christian, Williams said.

"It was bizarre to all of us. To me, that was more of a way to move this band even further-- 'the original singer is a born-again Christian?,'" Williams said. "Nowadays, Jimmy's given him CDs of the band and he'll tell Jimmy later, 'I threw it in the garbage' -- I guess he thinks we're all going to hell because we kept using the name."

 

While Williams enjoys living in the woods, hiding from society and writing dark lyrics, "like the black-metal guys who go walk around the forest for inspiration," he laughs, he often gets cabin fever and needs to get the hell into New Orleans.

"I love living in the city, too, like FEAR said," he noted. "I always need the inspiration of the city. The disgusting part of the city can't hurt for thinking of song titles or lyrics." 

He broke away from the woods on a recent evening to check out the punk triple bill of OFF!, Negative Approach and Double Negative in New Orleans.

"I was like, 'Yeah, this is a no-brainer,'" he said. "It was a good night, man, it was fun, it was good seeing everybody, you know?"

Whether he's watching Keith Morris of OFF! or John Brannon of Negative Approach cut loose on stage or digging into a pile of old 7-inch records with zeal, Williams is a true music man.

"That's all I think about, constantly, " he said. "I drive my wife crazy because I'll just start blabbering about some 7-inch, some band from 1979 and she has no clue what I'm talking about. But it's just one of those things, I just have to tell somebody, I have that need to discuss it--- so that consumes every part of me, I believe."

** Check out Williams' Web site at www.mikeix.com for records and books, including "Cancer as a Social Activity."