Justify Your Band: Sum-41's Stevo 32

By Molly Brown (molly.brown@vegas.com)

Sum-41 is driving through Connecticut, and has put National Lampoon's Vacation on pause--while lamenting the lack of porn in the van--to play justify your band. The giggly bunch of 19- and 20-year-olds are doing the time-honored tradition of a cross-country tour. The pop-punk foursome's Island debut, Half Hour of Power, delivers just what the title implies--it's a supercharged ride on riffs, screams and raw energy which makes the Canadian band sound like it's been used to surfing the Southern California coast all their lives. More punk than pop, this is a group of guys whose skins have been toughened up by the cold winters. But don't let the extra bite in the music fool you--they still live with their parents. Drummer Stevo 32 gave us reasons why anyone should buy Sum-41's album. Say the devil made you do it.

Stevo 32: OK, like do we have to tell the truth? Can we make up a lie, like it's a Cone (bassist) collectors' item? In every CD you buy there's a little Cone pubic hair in a bag. He's growing as much pubic hair as we're selling albums. There are a lot of Cone collectors; eventually we'll auction him off.

Noise: Any other reasons?

S: Aside from it being awesome, you guys are in Las Vegas, well, this is a big thing. We've got people in Vegas, and if you don't buy the album, they'll break the knees. There's a lot of holes in the desert. And I don't know. What do other bands usually say? 'This album is a piece of my soul and I put it down on the magnetic tape' and I'm like no one wants to buy our souls. We already sold them to the devil. We're awesome and sold our souls to the devil and in return we got a great little record. There's a bunch of little treats in it, not your everyday straightforward punk-pop album. There's one song, "Grab the Devil and F-- Him Up the Ass," in homage to the devil's fiery hoop.

What does your devil look like?

He's got that goat thing and the fur and the top half of him is red. He's pretty submissive for how big he is.

Like in the "South Park" movie?

He's in that movie, too. They didn't make him look like that, he looks like that. When he's having sex with us, cause he changes forms, he's like, what's that popular basketball player? He's either Shaquille O'Neal, or who's that little exercise guy? Richard Simmons in one of those little sparkly outfits. It really gets f--ed up when he changes forms on you when you're f--ing, cause his asshole changes form. It almost broke Cones' off.

Anything else?

Tell them the main reason to buy it is if you want some catchy tunes from four guys who still live with their parents from Canada. And you can see a local teen sensation in their prime--we're teen sensations that are swooping the nation... What's that? Rocking the nation? Oh, I like that better. Yeah, say rocking the nation. And put three Rs in front of rrrock.

taken from: las vegas weekley