Razorcake Issue #19

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Kat: So you find guitar harder than violin?Julie: No, I think just because I started(playing guitar) later. Anything you learn asa kid is easier. And it’s a totally differenttuning. It’s not like it transfers instantly.Kat: Is this band the same line-up as DickArmy? You were called Dick Army before,right?Julie: That was almost us. This guy namedDustin played guitar and upright bass, buthe had too many other musical commitmentsthat paid.Gabe: Why the name change?Julie: Actually, we got into legal troubleswith another band with the same name.They had it longer than us, so we said fine.Gabe: Texas Mafia’s much better.Kat: You weren’t all heartbroken? No sentimentalties?Julie: Nah. And it coincided with losing theguitar player, so it was kind of appropriateto change the name. The band kind ofchanged, anyhow.Gabe: You both [Todd and Angelique] arein The Hangmen. Are there any ill feelings?Like, do you spend more time on one side?Todd: Ah, no. Everyone’s been really coolabout it.Gabe: (to Julie) You play with a lot of otherpeople, too.Julie: Yeah, and actually I played on thenew Hangmen record. It’s pretty friendly.Angelique: Danny has his band, too.Kat: (to Julie) And you toured with Loverecently.Julie: It was such a good experience andit’s lead to paying gigs that finance what Iwant to do. It’s amazing! And it’s amazingto watch a performer like him from behindand watch what goes into making somethinglike that. It’s epic to watch.Kat: How did you get that gig?Julie: Jennifer who books at Spaceland is inWACO with me and she knows the guitarplayer in Love right now. They told me theywere looking for string players and that Ishould call. He (Arthur Lee) called and said,“You’re in WACO; you must be great.”Kat: That’s so random.Julie: Very random. I was so excited whenI called, but I totally didn’t think they weregoing to… they didn’t even audition me.They just said okay.Kat: Have you ever toured outside thecountry?Julie: I haven’t, but Angelique and Toddhave with The Hangmen.Kat: Do you find that audience is totallydifferent? Not so much different from LA,but from an American audience?Todd: I think they’re more enthusiastic.They love the rock and roll. But I’m speakingmore from a Hangmen point of view.This band hasn’t been outside of the country.But yeah, Germany, Spain… they reallygot out of hand.Kat: Yes, and Germans love DavidHasselhoff.Todd: Another question for the ages.Angelique: They know so much, too.About music and stuff.Kat: Do you think being an LA band influencesyour music in any way?Danny: I don’t think LA has a sound, so Ican’t really say. It’s kind of like a mishmashof crap.Gabe: Or maybe influences the lyrics orsomething?Julie: Not at all. I think in Denton, Texas,where me and Angelique came from, there isa really unique musical scene. There were somany original and interesting bands wherenothing was exactly the same, but it all hadsomething in common.Angelique: It was small, so there was definitelymore of a concentrated… I mean,there’s just so much out here.Julie: Everybody knew each other, everybodyplayed in each other’s band.… It was avery incestuous scene. And it was a friendlyscene. There was competition, but it wasfriendly competition. Whereas here I get thefeeling, with the exception of a few bands,that there’s just a lot of… shitty-ness andcompetitiveness. It’s unnecessary. And Ithink we would all be better if everyonewere more supportive of each other insteadof trying to beat the hell out of each other.Gabe: Have you personally had any particularexperiences that you’re willing todivulge?Todd: I can’t really be too objective of thatbecause I’m from here. It’s always been thatway so I don’t know the difference.Danny: You kind of end up being obliviousto the transplant drama. But I think peoplecome to LA looking for this sense of glamourand when they don’t find it they just turnbitter.Angelique: Overall I don’t think it affectsus because we’re not trying to… Like NMEsaid, “This is, and will always remain,underground.”Julie: We take that as a compliment.Kat: Do you have any online addictions?Todd: Gretsch. I like to look at the jazz kits.18” bass drums with no extra holes. Classic,vintage Gretsch.Kat: Drummers love their drums. They lovebeing the drummer, and are so passionateabout it.Todd: There’s a weird Zen about doing it.Danny: They’re actually the ones working.They’re up there sweating.Todd: I don’t know what it is. It’s like thatspace between zero and one. You constantlyhave a chance to make it more exact the nexttime. It’s just an amazing thing.Angelique: [laughing] I don’t even knowhow to get on the internet.Julie: I don’t like to look at stuff I can’tafford. It just makes me feel bad.Gabe: The song that’s always fascinatedme, it’s this really dark song of yours called“Ice Cream Sandwich.” What’s that songabout, if you care to go into it.Angelique: It starts off where I’m sitting ata Laundromat watching a kid and then itkind of goes into suicide and love and allthat.Todd: Short. But sweet.Kat: And it’s such a happy name for a song.Angelique: Well, the first words are“Eating an ice cream sandwich.”Kat: Your CD opens with a song called“The Assassin,” which is an instrumental.I’m wondering, do you go into it knowingthat you want to want an instrumental, or doyou realize that maybe there are no lyricsthat can do that song justice?Julie: I wasn’t and generally I don’t reallythink anything when I start writing a song.It just comes out the way it wants to be.There’s a certain way it is. That, or I justcan’t think of any lyrics.Kat: I love it when you can say somethingwithout any words. So how did you comeup with a name for it then?Julie: Actually, my friend Jason, whoaspires to be a director, was talking aboutwhat the video should look like. His ideawas an assassin and this very slow, sortafilm noir chase through some abandonedbuilding. And at the end there’s these threereally hard drum hits and you shoot him.Gabe: That’s awesome!Angelique: There’s this other instrumentalthat we play where people say they imaginethis or that, so it’s kind of like you’re notputting words to something and people canconjure up their own things.Kat: Have you seen anyone wearing aTexas Mafia t-shirt?Angelique: I went to a stoner rock show –Nebula – and there was a stoner guy wearinga Texas Mafia shirt.Todd: We cater to all.Julie: Yeah, for some reason guys withreally long hair seem to like us.Danny: Remember that one guy at TheScene who wouldn’t stop talking aboutQuiet Riot and stuff?Julie: We get really weird fans wheneverwe play The Scene.Kat: I saw the lead singer from Quiet Riotcoming out of a Ralph’s in Van Nuys andhe had really bad hair extensions.Todd: Are there any really good hair extensions?Danny: You know, some people can do itwell.Kat: Well, not him because he had no hairin the ‘80s.Gabe: They were probably plugs.Julie: Like the Barbie plugs.Kat: Totally random Teen Beat question…Have you ever belonged to a fan club oranything like that?Todd: We all shake our heads no.Julie: I have people I admire, but I’m notone of those people who knows a lot abouttheir favorite bands or whatever. I’d rathernot know anything about them and keep themusic separate because sometimes you findout people are dicks or sometimes youknow too much.Todd: Celebrity kills art. It really does.Julie: I’d rather take things at face value.Danny: I was obsessed with The Smiths fora long time. I wasn’t in the fan club but Icontributed to the fanzine.39
Gabe: Did you ever go to any of theMorrissey conventions or anything?Todd: He has conventions?! Right next toStar Trek?Kat: Oh yeah! There’s even a tribute bandcalled Sweet and Tender Hooligans.Danny: It’s one thing to be a cover band,but then they try to do their own songs tryingto sound like them.Angelique: I was in a Pixies cover band.Kat: What was the name?Angelique: A Superhero Named Tony. Wedid it last minute because we always talkedabout doing one.Kat: That’s a really good name for it.Angelique: It was our drummer’s idea. Wewanted to call it Erotic Vulture.Gabe: The Pixies are playing in April,aren’t they?Angelique: I heard they were going to goon tour with Love and Rockets.Kat: I heard it was opening for Red HotChili Peppers, unfortunately.fortune?Julie: [laughing] We don’t get approachedby anybody. They run the hell away frominstrumentals.Angelique: There was that one guy whowas like, “I want you to write a song for ahorror movie. Big budget. Fox. Television.Horror movie.”Julie: I work as kind of a gopher at a recordlabel so I see from the inside the way everythingworks. I’d be perfectly happy to get agood independent label who’d be willing tolet us put out what we wanted and not havesomeone tell me that I need to get a haircutor lose some weight. I don’t want to fuckinghear it.Angelique: Friends of mine were at theBigfoot Lodge and someone was askingthem what bands he should book and theyKat: That’s sad that all of your passion andcreativity could be summed up on a Post-It.Danny: You don’t even get a complete sentence.Kat: Do you find that you perform betterwith a couple of drinks before a show ornone at all?Angelique: We think we do. I haven’t donecompletely drunk, though.Julie: Me and Ange have a ritual. Wealways do a tequila shot and a Corona.Angelique: Maybe we should try whiskey.Julie: Good for the voice…Kat: New ritual, maybe?Julie: But if you go changing the ritual,everything will change.Gabe: Are there any themes that keepshowing up in your songs?Danny: Murder.Angelique: It’s a mixture of love and suicide.Gabe: Is playing music for you all a catharticexperience, or is it very cut and dry?Everyone in unison: Ewww!Danny: Scary.Gabe: When I was twelve, I had tickets togo see the Cure, the Pixies, and Love andRockets, all playing one show, and fuckin’no one would give me a ride.All: Awww!Todd: Not even with tickets?Gabe: It’s hard to pull that shit off whenyou’re twelve.Todd: Yeah.Gabe: What’s the biggest misconceptionyou’ve heard about your band?Angelique: I’m a catering chef and we wereat this big party for this like, DaytimeEmmy winners or whatever, and this reallyflashy dressed guy walks in and says, “I sawone of Roland Bolan’s bands, Dick Army. Isaw them the other night.”Todd: (to Angelique) You were in one ofhis bands?Angelique: Well, that CD we were handingout that Roland produced.Julie: He recorded it for us. He had a ProTools set up.Angelique: It was just funny that this guywas going off on how great Dick Army was.I was like, “Yeah, that’s my band.” And hewas like, “Oh, really?”Kat: Do you have cliché stories of recordpeople coming up to you after a show orwhatever and making promises of fame andsaid Texas Mafia, and the guy said,“They’re not a big enough band.” And thensomeone else said, “Yeah, they don’t promotethemselves.”Julie: We’re not schmoozers.Danny: You don’t have to schmooze. Youjust have to sit outside a club at 2:00 A.M.,freezing your ass off and handing out flyers.It’s not fun.Julie: I don’t think that even works. I thinkyou have to go out a lot and you have to talkto people and those are two things that,unless I’m playing a show, I’m not reallydoing.Danny: Tell the story about the notes yousee at work.Julie: On a Jon Spencer Blues ExplosionCD there was some really asinine commentlike, “Sounds good, but not radio friendly.”They ascertain that Jon Spencer is not radiofriendly.Kat: Is he supposed to be?Todd: They missed the boat on that one.Julie: Yeah, that’s why I’m not slippingdemos under anybody’s door. If that’s notradio friendly, we’re sure not.Danny: Or one said something like, “Reallycute, eighteen-year-old twins,” or whatever.They’re really scary.Todd: Oh no, it couldn’t be like that!Angelique: It’s cathartic, but the thing isthat I don’t realize it until I play. I don’tthink of it that way, but then I realize it isthat way.Todd: You can always kind of tell who’sdedicated to craft and who isn’t. It’s just amatter of fine-tuning the way you do it.Julie: I don’t notice so much when we playall of the time, but when we don’t play forawhile I feel really tense. All the things I’mused to getting out all of the time startbuilding up and I start feeling horrible untilwe start practicing and playing again.Kat: Do you have any interesting Recycler(LA classified paper) stories? It doesn’tnecessarily have to be with this band, justamusing “Looking for singer, blah, blah,blah” stuff.Todd: I have one, actually. I placed an ad,something to the effect of, “I’m eight feettall, 400 lbs., and have terminal acne. Joinmy band.” And a guy called me up and waslike, “Are you really eight feet tall?”41
Page 3 and 4: *“She lost her mind but found som
Page 5: and into punk rock are basicallysig
Page 9 and 10: averted by the last-second applicat
Page 11 and 12: BELIEVE I SAT AROUND ALL WEEK THINK
Page 13 and 14: I ask of you to please do your part
Page 15 and 16: happen. I looked close - as close a
Page 17 and 18: eing a bi-polar primadonna andhavin
Page 19 and 20: So, what was the unifier that someh
Page 21 and 22: embellished descriptions of theirda
Page 23 and 24: gets soft. I guess you can say this
Page 25 and 26: just up and leave, I can’t unders
Page 27 and 28: SEAN CARSWELLA MONKEY TO RIDE THE D
Page 29: MADDYSHIFTLESS WHEN IDLEI am really
Page 33 and 34: Ummm, no thanks. The ferry pulled i
Page 35: One uninitiated virgin might wonder
Page 39 and 40: Zach: It’s just really funny and
Page 41 and 42: Don’t move.” We stop and look o
Page 43 and 44: Whether or not you’ve heard of An
Page 45 and 46: failure to respond to the unprecede
Page 47 and 48: Robert: Well, we intended to move t
Page 49: Frank: Chicago’s fun. Atlanta’s
Page 53 and 54: without it. It was only for fops an
Page 55 and 56: democratic nations and the fascists
Page 57 and 58: Water trickles down from the rocksa
Page 59 and 60: Let me show you something. What doy
Page 61 and 62: don’t care. It’s going anyway.
Page 63 and 64: Hasil: “Sad Old Rose,” “The G
Page 65 and 66: Dan Monick’sPhoto PageThis was th
Page 67 and 68: est bits of the sound down pat, rig
Page 69 and 70: pro-USA anthem genre, in this case
Page 71 and 72: authenticity, updating its membersh
Page 73 and 74: Conglomerate Monster are tripping o
Page 75 and 76: J CHURCH: Palestine: CDI first hear
Page 77 and 78: lollipop music suddenly has thewigg
Page 79 and 80: is, the Red Onions don’t really s
Page 81 and 82: that wants it all to be smooth and
Page 83 and 84: VARIOUS ARTISTS:Greaseball Melodram
Page 85 and 86: Send all zines for review toRazorca
Page 87 and 88:
down of fifteen San Diego shootings
Page 89 and 90:
Amped: Notes From a Go-Nowhere Punk
Page 91:
“Fight Anti-Semitism in Our Commu
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