JL: Do you guys still talk to Johnny?
Jason: Hell yeah. All the time! Johnny'll prob'ly be here tonight. Probably. I'd think he'd be here.
Jack: I wouldn't be surprised if he was here.
Jason: We're not in town a lot, ya know? But when we see him we talk. He seems happy. He doesn't want to travel and stuff. I think he's doing DJ-ing and stuff.
JL: Yeah, I saw on the message board....back when he was with you guys, there was messages from...now is he married or is it his girlfriend or....?
Jason: His ex-girlfriend has his son.
JL: I saw messages, ya know, "we miss you", and stuff from his son, and it was like it was so cute. So cute.
Jason: Yeah. His kid's really cute.
JL: It's hard. Kids are hard.
Jason: Yeah, that's why Dennis isn't in a band, cuz he has a two-year-old also, and it's, yeah, really hard. I can't imagine doing it. And that's why I don't have kids!
JL: Okay. The name change...do you feel that the fan base was as upset by it as you? Do you feel like you've lost any fans over it?
Jason: No. I think we've gained fans. I think they were more upset than we were.
Jack: I think we came out lookin' really good because of the whole thing.
JL: Yeah. I think Royal Crown Revue just made a bunch of asses of themselves, personally.
Jack: People seem to rally support behind us.
Jason: Yeah, like the underdog.
JL (to Jason): Have you always hated swing?
Jason: No, I don't hate swing. I say that...I hate anything really trendy, you know what I mean? I've always hated anything that just, people jump onto it without knowing anything about it. I looove Lou Prima, I love the Jordonairres, jump-blues like the Treniers. And even like "neo" quote unquote swing bands like Mighty Blue Kings, I think they're a phenominal band. So no, I don't hate swing. But what I do hate is Gap ads. (I proceed to crack up laughing here.) Ya know what I'm saying?
Jack: Yeah, I think that sums it up.
JL: You have a point.
Jason: It's just like, every single ska band across the country now is becoming swing. What's up with that? If you want to see anything kill a scene quicker, it's that.
JL: Has there ever been a time when you wished you weren't doing this?
Jason: Sometimes, like when we're on a real long tour, I think, sometimes I'm like, "Oh God, I'm tired, and I haven't had sleep in a long time, and I'm sick..." but then you get onstage and all of a sudden it's like, "ahh, this is why we're here". You, Jack?
Jack: Yeah, I think....I always enjoy it. I mean, don't get me wrong, at the end of a tour and there's three days left, I'm looking forward to going home. But I've always enjoyed traveling. So no, I've never wanted to do something else. I've always enjoyed this.
Jason: Yeah, we're lucky. It's the best thing for us. I mean, God, if we didn't do this, I'd be sooo unhappy. Just because it feels so good just to create songs. Just last week it was like...just great to have these new songs.
JL: Sitting up until five in the morning writing songs!
Jason: Oh yeah. That's pretty much what I do, yeah.
JL (to Jason): Have you ever stood on his bass like the Reverend [Horton Heat] stands on Jimbo's?
Jason: Ah, no. I broke his bass once, but I've never stood on his bass. Jack used to stand on the bass.
Jack: We used to do some aerobics....
Jason: (cracks up laughing)
Jack: But we don't anymore. You know, we used to...like I used to stand on the bass, Johnny used to stand on the bass...
Jason: Yup. I remember that. We used to do the same thing as Horton Heat does.
Jack: Yeah, I used to lay on top of it too. Yeah, that was impressive. But I don't anymore.
Jason: You know what though, it's cool to do it, but that bass doesn't lend itself well to it, right, you said? But also--
Jack: I can't stand on it. It won't stand firm. My other bass will stay up, but there's something weird about that bass. I've tried to stand on it, and it wobbles too much. I can't balance on it.
Jason: In a way, though, I think that a lot of rockabilly bands do that. I don't think we need to do it because we put out so much energy that it doesn't matter. And we're usually clippin' along so fast that...
Jack: Yeah, the songs are so goddamned fast...I gotta hold onto that thing, ya know...I can't concentrate on something else.
JL: It's funny, I love watching him play, because you're just kinda off in your own little world.
Jason: Jack holds it all together.
JL: I know, I know! But it's like, you look so calm...
Jack: That's good. That's really good!
JL: I mean seriously! It's great. I love watching you play.
Jack: I might be having a heart attack up there, but as long as I look good...
JL: What's your absolute worst horror story from the road?
Jason: You got one, Jack?
Jack: Just the worst is probly breaking down in Iowa, like Kansas or Iowa. And actually it wasn't so bad for me because luckily I got to wait in the van. But our tour manager had to walk three miles back to the nearest exit, and the only thing that was there was a campground with one pay phone that looked like, I guess, it hadn't been used in years. That kinda was a setback.
Jason: That was Ohio, right?
Jack: Yeah. That was pretty bad. But that was about it. And then of course there's just the normal, like, just one tour I remember being sick for the entire time.
Jason: That was the same tour. No, that was the Pietasters.
Jack: That was Pietasters. Other than that, I've been okay.
Jason: The time we broke down, was, he was talking about, is we had played with the Cramps in Columbus, Ohio, and I was sick as a dog.
Jack: I think we were in Indiana.
Jason: We were going to Indiana. And I was flu-ish, and really fucked up, like, literally, I passed out, I couldn't remember the gig. I passed out in the dressing room afterwards. We got in the van, they threw me in the loft, I had a bunch of sweaters on, covered me. I woke up in the middle of the night and the van's moving, and there's lights in the back and there's no-one driving. And we were being towed. I had no idea what was going on.
JL: That sounds pretty creepy. (At this point a friend of Jason's comes over to chat. Into the mic I said, "Jason's found a friend.") So. When is the new album coming out??
Jason: June or July.
Jack: June or July, yeah.
Jason: We're thinkin', yeah. They're pushing us for it.
Jack: Maybe a little single beforehand.
Jason: Yeah. And we're moving...it's weird because we didn't know what to expect when we got back in the space, but songs are coming out quick now (snaps fingers). Really good.
JL: So it's all gonna be new stuff?
Jason: Yeah, well, yeah. Nothing that's ever been recorded before. Some stuff you'll hear, you'll recognize...well nothing that's been on CD before. Like 'Hat-Size', we're gonna put on, with horns.
JL: Ahhhh yeah. That's like my favorite song.