Over the past few years, the city of "Seattle" has been synonymous with heroin, coffee, rain and...uh...(I was trying to avoid the obvious) but lately a whole slew of newer bands have cropped up combining good straight-ahead fuckin' punk rock with rural/country tinges. Steel Wool are one and another is Gas Huffer - get their two CDs on Empty and the latest one on Epitaph. Not only are they great, fun CDs but they also come with a comic book (if you buy the LP versions - otherwise ya gotta send a whole measly buck in) but if enough of you buy their CDs, those record labels will remain in the black so that I can get more freebies to review (and, basically, that's what it's all about). The band was interviewed in their deluxe accommodation dressing room at some venue in NYC I've since forgotten before opening for The Cramps.
Matt Wright:
vocals
Don Blackstone:
bass, backing vocals
Tom Price:
guitar, backing vocals
Joe Newton:
drums, backing vocals
Joe:
Started about five years ago. Were The Kings of Rock together then?
Tom:
They were together, yes.
Joe:
Sort of a half-project going on with Tom and Don, our bassist, sort of a garage-rock fiasco thing. I had known Tom since 1982; saw him at parties and knew his old band, The U-Men and he knew Matt from Matt's old band so he just kind of knew us all from four different places so he called us up and said, "You wanna be in a band?" and we said, "Yeh, I'm not doing anything." So we played together for three months before Matt was done with school. He was living in eastern Washington and moved back to Seattle and started playing with us. Another eight months later, we put out our first single and it's been a rocket ride to superstardom ever since.
Tom:
Most of us were born in Washington State and raised in West Washington or Seattle.
CM:
A couple of things. When I was in grad school, the drill ensemble came and played a bunch of different percussion and they were really good. I had a music class when I was in kindergarten and we had an African drum class that you could take as a music option. I think every kid likes to hit drums anyways but I got really excited by that.
Tom:
Some rebel! "School, man! That's where I got into drums!"
CM:
How about you?
Tom:
My family's pretty musical. We had a bunch of guitars lying around. One thing that influenced me a lot was I had a brother that was five years older and he was really into rock and roll.
Joe:
Oh, that's really cool!! Family, man!! (laughter) I thought you were gonna say, "Yeh, man, I was really fuckin' wasted one night and I fell down in the gutter and there was a guitar there-"
Tom:
"Yeh, man, I've had enough of this system! I'm gonna hit back with my guitar!" I actually started on guitar playing "Kum-bay-ya" and "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" and campfire songs at bible camp and Sunday School and stuff.
Joe:
Oh, really rebellious!!
CM (to Matt):
How about your beginnings as a vocalist?
Matt:
I was snatched from my cradle by Godzilla... I don't know. I never really actually thought about what influenced me to be a vocalist. I think the first band I was in in high school, I actually wasn't the vocalist for a little bit. I was playing a keyboard and my brother was the vocalist and we kicked him out of the band so I took over as the vocalist.
Joe:
That's a good family squabble! "We kicked my brother out of the band!"
Matt:
He was kind of hanging out with the skate kids and punk rockers so we were all trying to make this punk band except with keyboards. Then he kinda went through another phase where he was starting to make fun of us so we kicked him out of the band. That's how I ended up being the vocalist of that first band. After that, it seemed like the thing to do. It's easy, there's not that much stuff to carry around.
CM:
Did you ever see rock'n roll bands and focus on the vocalists?
Matt:
There's definitely vocalists that have influenced me in that way. Lux Interior is one big, obvious thing that blew my mind. I always thought the vocalist for Tom's old band was really cool. Iggy Pop, The Sonics and all that stuff. Yeah, actually I never listened to The Doors until people told me that I sounded like Jim Morrison in my old band. I always though Dave Vanian was a really cool vocalist. I was probably influenced by people that were influenced by y'know, in terms of older stuff. I thought Dave Vanian was really cool - big, scary voices. I can't really make big, scary voices but I like those kinda voices.
CM:
Do you remember what the first Gas Huffer rehearsal was like?
Joe:
Well, it took a long time for Tom to get his guitar in tune (laughter).
Tom:
It was a different thing back then. It was kinda funny because I knew everybody in the band personally but it wasn't like the other guys knew each other at all.
Joe :
I had never known Don but I had seen The Kings of Rock.
Tom:
So it was a little tentative at first but it always is, when you're starting out, you don't know exactly who's supposed to do what but me and Don had been playing together in a band together for a long time. It was just the new guy, Joe, who was a little sketchy...
Joe:
I think we hit it off fairly quickly as far as the chemistry of the band. It worked out pretty well and everyone was cracking jokes right off the bat.
Tom:
That's one thing I like about this band is we all get along pretty well because everybody's pretty laid back. I've been in bands where there are drugged out psychos who don't show up at practice. Everyone in this band is pretty much into doin' it. No one pulls weird head trips or anything.
Joe:
No one has big ego problems getting in the way. I have to apologize every once in a while to people; saying something up there I shouldn't have.
CM:
When was the first Gas Huffer show?
Tom:
The first-ever show was in 1989 at this really cheesy rental party hall above a tavern downtown.
CM:
Was it a VFW type of thing?
Tom:
Not quite.
Joe:
It was just a big room with a small stage at one end that they just rent for parties, probably.
Tom:
It was a show meant for a Los Angeles band called Sandy Duncan's Eye who just broke up recently. We played with The Eye in downtown Seattle. We scratched around for a while. We were maybe luckier than some other new bands in that all of us had played in bands before and we knew a bunch of the club owners so it wasn't that tough to get gigs but we definitely had to do some scrabbling around playing some lame gigs.
Joe:
What's this about word games....? Oh, you said "scrabbling," I thought you were gonna say "Scrabbling around playing word games." (laughter) Yahtzee.
CM:
Why do you say you had a hard time getting shows? Do you feel you flew in the face of what the underground scene was like in Seattle at the time?
Tom:
Well, I'm not saying we didn't have that hard of a time (laughs), it's just when you're starting out, you have to pay a little bit of dues and be the opening act for bands you don't necessarily like.
Joe:
We had a lot of good breaks starting off partly because all of us, one way or another, knew quite a few people, who were in the music scene and also because Tom's old band, The U-Men, had been real popular. A lot of people were interested to see what he was doing with his new project. One of our first few shows was with Mudhoney and one was with Tad. We had a bit of exposure and we definitely had to pay our dues and we still feel like we're paying our dues now but I think we had a certain amount of good word-of-mouth around town fairly quickly.
Tom:
We were "flavor of the month" for a couple weeks there.
CM:
The Rocket (Seattle music weekly) really got into you guys for a while?
Matt:
Well, they've always reviewed us. We've never been on the cover of The Rocket, that's one thing that's never happened to us but we got a couple two-page spreads. Not so much The Rocket, just people that were involved in music. People in other bands came to watch us for a while and they still do now and then but there was definitely a moment when people were interested what was up with us, what we were going to be like.
Joe:
Once they had figured it out, they went, "Okay, that's cool. Seen it."
Tom:
One thing you mentioned a moment ago which was when we came out and started playing this kinda high-speed punk rock with a little bit of a country twang to it, it really wasn't the kind of stuff that was popular in Seattle at that time.
Joe:
I don't know if it still is either. I can't think of-
Matt:
It's getting more that way, though. I think just nationally that straight punk is sort of coming back around but at the time there were always bands doing that kind of stuff in Seattle, not quite the way we did it but they just weren't the bands people were going to see en masse at that time and we were opening for a lot of those other bands so a lot of people would come to a Mudhoney show or a Tad show or whatever and see us and I guess either it seemed really fresh or really repulsive, one or the other to them.
Tom:
We were definitely doing the wrong tunes at the wrong time as far as the Seattle grunge explosion! (laughs). That kind of passed us by.
CM:
I know that you've made a name for yourself down in South America because of the Seattle connection and they are totally into punkabilly/trashabilly down there.
Tom:
Wow!
CM:
They usually find the stuff on import or get the stuff on cassettes from punk rock pen pals.
Matt: (very surprised):
That's news to me! Good news!
Tom:
I'd love to go down there. It seems a lot of bands are playing there now - not a lot of bands but more bands are playing in Rio de Janiero.
CM (to Tom):
You said you were in the U-Men. Were you on that "Deep Six" compilation LP?
Tom:
Yes, I was in the U-Men for about 8 years.
CM:
Have you seen any royalty payments from the A&M re-release of "Deep Six?"
Tom:
Uhhhhh...I gotta talk to Daniel (House - c/z head who originally released the "Deep Six" compilation in the mid 1980's - ed.) when I get back to Seattle! (laughs) I'm not sure when I'm supposed to get paid for that. I haven't seen any but I got a little bit of an advance money.
Joe:
Get a large pair of pliers to extract the...(laughter)
Tom:
Naah. It'll be forthcoming.
CM:
Did you put out an album called "Live at Club Wow" or was that Pere Ubu calling themselves The U-Men bootleg that we stole our name from. The first time the U-Men ever came to the midwest, all these older guys would show up thinking that we were a Pere Ubu side project and we were going , "Oh no! Someone besides us has heard of this obscure Pere Ubu bootleg!"
CM:
Did the first Gas Huffer releases appear on Empty Records?
Tom:
Actually Black Label was our first label. They put out our first two singles.
CM:
They're based in Seattle?
Tom:
Yeh. Some friends of mine own a record store there. We've actually put out a ton of singles and compilation cuts on all kinds of labels but after Black Label, we did the first two LPs and our last seven-inch EP on Empty.
CM:
What's your opinion of Empty?
Tom:
It's a great label. It was not an easy decision to jump to Epitaph Records.
Joe:
It took about a year to make the decision!
Tom:
We tend to be obstinately loyal to friends that help us out but Blake (Empty Records head -ed.) was cool with it. We just decided it'd be good to try something different. Go to a different label and see what happens.
Matt:
Empty has a really good stable of bands. Just about every band on there is the cream of the crop as far as I'm concerned - from our town. Blake's a cool guy and it was a cool label to be on for us. We learned a lot. He helped us out a lot too.
CM:
Was it distributed well? Could you go into a record store on the east coast and find your records there?
Matt:
Yeh.
Tom:
The first wasn't distributed too well but after that, I believe, he hooked up with Mordam and that increased the distribution a lot. Still though, kind of not as good east of the Mississippi. He's got west of the Mississippi down well.
Matt:
Definitely you can't really find it in too many chain stores and stuff like that but that's the big difference with Epitaph is that they have serious distribution all over the place. It's a lot easier to find our records now. For me, that was one reason to make the switch because it's not like we can do this forever. Epitaph makes it so that more people are able to get a hold of our records. That's a good thing from my point of view.
CM:
And how do you feel Epitaph has been with the new album?
Joe:
Excellent. They treat us with leaps and bounds more support than a major label.
Matt:
I think they support us better than a major could do, definitely. They give us more personal attention and more actual financial backing.
CM:
And now they're very much in the black, financially due to The Offspring et al.
Matt:
Oh yeah.
Tom:
There's one minor difference between them and a major label. Most major labels give their musicians about $300 every 2 weeks for just a salary.
Matt:
Well, they work that into the advance.
Joe:
But they're really cool. A great label.
Tom:
We were real wary of it because we like some of the bands on Epitaph but we weren't crazy about a lot of the other bands and we thought, "Oh, no. Do we want to be associated with this Southern California hardcore deal?" But then when we went down there and actually met them, they were just so cool. they're just such nice people that we couldn't refuse after that.
CM:
Your first tour was when and where?
Matt:
The first major tour was in 1991 when we did a tour of the entire US with Mudhoney - the outer rim of the US.
Tom:
Wait a minute - our first major tour was ten days in Portland, Oregon and California.
Matt:
Yeh, we did the trial run down to the bay area.
Joe:
In ten total days we only did five or six shows!
CM:
What happened? Were shows falling through?
Joe:
No, but you'd get paid $50 or $70 a night and play for 20 people.
Matt:
Figure out what was wrong with the van about half an hour out of Seattle, that kind of stuff.
Joe:
We did have a really good show in San Francisco, even on that very first tour. We were actually headlining most of those shows when we had a couple of singles out. No one knew who we were and yet we were going down and playing shows where we were supposed to be the main attraction.
Tom:
When we did the whole Mudhoney tour of the US...kinda lost track of it all now!
Matt:
I guess the year after that we did the US in two parts - a western tour. We did one with the Supersuckers and then we did another one in the western states on our own not that long after the Supersuckers tour as I recall. Then we went to Europe for six and a half weeks. Then we came back and were taking our second stab at the eastern US. We got most of the way through that tour, then Don got sick so we had to fly him home and drive home from Florida.
CM:
What did he come down with?
Matt:
He got a really bad case of pneumonia. We pretty much told him he'd have to go home because he was trying to tough it up and he was on the verge of death so we put him on a plane.
Joe:
Or so it seems - he went to a party the night he got back (laughs).
Matt:
Then we were out for six weeks immediately prior to this tour and we did the perimeter of the US again so now we're out for four more with The Cramps. A little more focused in the midwest this time and we've been hitting places in the east where we don't usually do that well because we haven't been this way too often so it's a good thing.
CM:
How did your European tour go?
Tom:
It was up or down. One night we'd play for 15 people, the next for 500. We were pretty unknown while we were there so it was a bit of a struggle but it was fun.
CM:
What valuable things have you learned about touring since you've been on them?
Tom:
There's so much...even little details like bringing a little box of garbage bags for your dirty laundry.
Matt:
Bring a pad to put your sleeping bag on because you end up sleeping on a lot of hard floors.
Tom:
Bring a pillow - always bring a pillow!!!
Joe:
Bring a sleeping bag! (to Tom) I think you were like, "Oh, I don't need a sleeping bag!" and you slept in your jacket the entire tour!
Tom:
Actually, I think I brought a quilt. But yeah, the more you tour, the more you learn to take things that are much more bearable and comfortable and compact.
Matt:
Books are the most portable and cost-effective form of road entertainment.
CM:
What are some of your favorite books you've been reading on tour?
Matt:
The last thing I read was a biography of Frank O'Hara. I started to read this Faulkner book I brought on this tour, The Long Twig, because I like the cover. I mean I like Faulkner but I found a couple Faulkners that have these lurid pulp fiction covers. When those book first came out, they tried to market them like that, "Sexy! Something dirty will be in here if you read it!! I'm having a hard time reading them on this tour for some reason and even on the last one because we seem to be driving in the dark a lot. I need a Gamegear or something!
Tom:
That's my problem. Sometimes after a show I'll get really drunk and I'll read three or four chapters of a book and I'll be really into it but then I'll wake up the next day and I'll open up to where the marker is and go, "What?!? It seems like I skipped ahead! I don't remember any of this!" (laughs)
CM:
What are some things you like and don't like about the east coast?
Tom:
The traffic in the cities is a lot more congested and it's a lot harder to get around in a big van. Not so much New York City but a lot of other cities. It just seems the streets are laid out back in the donkey-cart days so it's real easy to get lost in Boston and Providence.
Matt:
The more of a toll you pay, the worse the roads get, it appears, on the east coast.
Tom:
Yeh, that's my least favorite thing about the east coast is the toll. Having to pay for roads that are all shitty.
CM:
Like in Boston and DC.
Tom:
Yeh.
Tom:
In the cities, like New York City and Manhattan those areas are really shitty but once you get out of the major highways and stuff in New York, the interstates are fine.
(Don finally enters)
Don:
Hi. I'm Don. I play the bass.
Tom:
One thing I like about the east coast is-
Joe:
We're only gonna be here for three more days!!! (laughs)
Tom:
No, people seem real cool out here. There's more punks out here.
Joe:
The glamour, the excitement of the nightlife.
Matt:
I just like the fact that the cities are much, much older than the cities on the west coast and there is some sense of history in the architecture and stuff like that. Just like a huge variety, especially in New York, of people and stuff.
CM:
When I asked the guys in Ed Hall the same question, they said the pot on the east coast was really bad.
(band all agrees)
CM:
they said the pot was better on the west coast and in Texas.
Tom:
They don't have good weed down in Texas!! (laughs)
Joe:
Some place in Arkansas is supposed to have the best weed in the entire country.
Don:
My mom tells me the Seattle pot is the best.
Matt:
I wouldn't know about it myself but my mom likes the west coast pot. (laughs)
CM:
You've always put out a comic book with your LPs. Who came up with that idea?
Joe:
It was all my idea. (laughs)
Tom:
It was sort of a natural thing to happen since all four of us do cartooning pretty much. It's cheaper than making a video.
Matt:
It's a reward for vinyl buyers too. We all like vinyl so it fits in an LP.
CM:
Who does the bulk of the storytelling and cartooning?
Tom:
It's split four ways. We each do three pages.
CM:
I like the one in the "Industry..." comic book about how the band was on the road and Don was so hungry he decided to take a bit out of someone's head. (Tom laughs). Is that based on a real-life experience?
Joe:
It's true.
Tom:
It happens about every day!
Joe:
That was actually based on some actual incidents. Just the first time we went on tour with Mudhoney, we basically had enough money to pay for the gas to get to Minneapolis where the first show was. Everyone had $20 or $30 in their wallet which kind of dwindled away and we had a can of corned beef hash or something and we ended up opening it and spreading it on some stale bread and it tasted really good by the time we ate it, it was like, "MMMMMMM!! SANDWICH!!!!"
Tom:
We were so hungry!
Joe:
We just take a little license in our comics. Our way of telling fish tales.
CM:
Was that incident the low point of your road experiences?
Tom:
That first tour involved a little bit of weight loss but we've been real lucky on tour. We don't have any disasters. We've had vans that have fallen apart on us and we've had to stop and get repairs but we haven't had any serious problems with police. We haven't had any serious accidents (Joe knocks on wood). We haven't had any serious hurricanes. We haven't had any major floods.
Don:
We were actually caught in the riots in LA (April 1992) and actually played the first night of the riots downtown then we ran like scared little children to Long Beach and they made us leave Long Beach. They said, "Sorry, have a beer, hit the road" and we went to San Diego and hid out there where we played and then went to Arizona and they don't have any riots there because it's such a police state they immediately shut everything down so it was fine after that but it was very frightening to be in Los Angeles and watch the live newscasts as the riots developed.
Joe:
Yeh, we were watching the TV that afternoon because the verdict from that trial was coming down and we watched it and all that stuff was coming down. All that stuff just happened and we watched it on the news.
Don:
That's a weird sensation when you're watching it on TV and you stick your head out the window and you're going, "OK, that plume of smoke over there is this on the TV."
Matt:
We watched the Reginald Denny thing as it was happening and I thought the guy was dead for sure. He looked like he was beaten to death.
Joe:
We called up Popdefect who we were playing with at Al's Bar that night and asked them, "uhhh, guys, do you think it's a good idea to play?" and they're going, "Oh come on! Don't be a weenie! Come On! Let's go play!" Actually Citizen Fish was supposed to also play that night and they didn't show up so we called them Citizen Chicken. They were very wise, I think.
Joe:
They seem like Citizen Sensible now.
CM:
I read Antiseen were in the area when that happened as well and the promoter told them to get out of town.
Don:
Yeh, those guys act like they're so tough!
Joe:
Yeh! Breaking bottles on their heads!
Matt:
We were shaken. We were shaken.
Joe:
I was shaking for a couple of days. I was still shaking!
RRRRRRRR!!!
Matt:
It's weird watching it on TV and it looks like the whole world is erupting in a riot.
CM:
What does the future hold for the band?
Matt:
Untold riches and fame!
Don:
"Untold" is right!