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It was a Tuesday night during Justin's radio show, and the Weird Lovemakers were rockin' hard. After their performance, punk deejays Todd Urick and Justin Kable asked these kind fellows all of the hard hitting questions, while the rest of us listened attentively in the background.... Justin: I'm here in Studio B with Todd and the Weird Lovemakers. Hi guys. All: Hey! Todd: So why don't you guys all introduce yourselves. Gerard: I'm Gerard the drummer. Greg: I'm Greg, one of the guitar players. I sing too. Hector: I'm Hector; I play bass and I sing. Jason: I'm Jason; I play guitar and I don't sing much. Justin: Alright, you fit a lot of rockin' into 33 minutes there. So anyways, you're from Tucson, is that it? All: Yeah, right! Justin: How's life, how's punk, how's rockin' out down there? Greg: Fair to middlin' (laughter). It's always fair to middling in Tucson. Hector: Rockin' out is bad, but life is good, sort of---low wage jobs. Justin: Are there lots of places to play? Hector: No. Jason: Well there are more than other towns we've been in. Gerard: I like Tucson as far as we have friends that come and see us play, but, I mean, the sceneÕs not totally happening. Greg: No, must of our friends never come see us play. All our friends hate our band. Gerard: All my friends come. Greg: All your teacher friends. Justin: Are you a teacher? Gerard: Yeah. Justin: What kind of kids or adults do you teach? Greg: Retards Gerard: -at least they are when they finish my class. No, I teach 7th and 8th grade English. Justin: Oh, that must be terrible. Gerard: No, it's fun. The kids are obnoxious. I mean, I think it takes an obnoxious guy like me to handle those obnoxious little guys. Greg: The best thing is they come to our shows and they yell, "Mr. Schumacher, Mr. Schumacher!" It's like To Sir, With Love. Justin: That's pretty incredible. Are there a lot of places to play? Do you get a lot of shows there? Jason: We keep pretty busy. Gerard: We survive. Jason: We play house parties and stuff. Justin: Tell us about the newest album label. Gerard: Well we love Blake, who's the owner of Empty Records; he's a great guy. Greg: I wouldn't go that far...love? Gerard: Well, I love Blake, I think he's a great guy. Hector: and Megan Greg: oh, now Megan I love... Gerard: They're great people and we're just happy as hell to be on their label. We really don't know how well it's selling -- they never really tell usÉ Jason: They say we'd know if was doing really good or really bad, so it must be average. Justin: Do you have a contract with Empty or anything? You planning on following it up? Jason: Yeah, we're gonna record another album, probably in like a month or two with a lot of the stuff we played here tonight. We're hoping to record it with Tim Kerr which will be in March. He said he was into doing it; we just have to figure out a time. Justin: Have you ever worked with him before? Jason: No, never. Our roadie has, he's in some other bands. He from the Fells. (into talks about how Heath, the roadie, does excellent Alf impressions, however, he does not do any on the air. Later, we discovered that it was probably good he didn't. Although the impressions were excellent, the content was questionable) Todd: I notice lyrically, your songs are different than a lot of bands songs-they sort of tell stories. Who writes the lyrics? Hector: We both do-we split. Todd: Like "Trailer Ann?" Hector: I don't know. I probably came up with it at work just fantasizing about a stoner rocker girl asking me to move in with her. It's her singing, not me, supposedly. Todd: So you guys were talkin' about chicks in the van. You guys went to the Mustang Ranch? Hector: Oh yeah. We kinda ran out of there. Jason: We ran in there and ran out, we were in there for about a grand total of thirty-five seconds. Todd: What were you expecting? Greg: Let me tell the story since I was the one left holding the bag. So these guys have wanted to go to the Mustang Ranch more than me, well except for Hector, they were just like, "come on let's go" and I'm like no, but Jason had his heart set on it tonight so we're like o.k. So we walk in there and it's like something out of this weird adolescent fantasy, just like these five women dressed in lingerie come out and there just like smiling at us like,[Jason: sort of like this lost, vacant smile]... "we are your play things what would you like?" And that creeped us out, but I was just like "Okay, it will be embarrassing. Todd: Were you there just for conversation or something? Greg: ... We were just gonna drink and check it out, just to say we were there. So those guys....I didn't even see they left. They ditched me. I turned around and they were gone. I just figured if we got a drink we could leave... Jason: The madame came out and said, "it's okay girls, relax, they're not doing anything" Greg: so that's our cool Mustang Ranch story. Todd: Just get a beer there huh? Greg: We didn't even get a beer! Those guys ran. I got a book of matches. I'm pretty cool. Todd: Well anyhow...Greg, I notice you have a pretty enduring voice. When you sing it seems like you yell into the microphone. Greg: Thank you very much (with a faux larengitis whisper) Todd: How do you sing like that without losing your voice? Greg: Lots of lozenges, and those little honeybears. I just suck them out of the corner of my mouth when I'm in the car. Todd: How long have you been singing? Greg: The first hardcore band I was in I was fifteen, I sang a little; I was only the part time singer. But ever since I was fifteen, and now I'm 31, do the math. Todd: Somebody else in the band said that they spent some time in Cleveland. Jason: Oh no, I was in Columbus. Todd: Columbus, okay. Jason: Yeah I lived in Columbus, Ohio for a couple of years. Greg: (clapping) I love that story. Todd: ...'cause you pulled all of those Ohio records Jason: All right, old Ohio stuff, yeah, I like a lot of late 70s American punk stuff, the Cleveland stuff in particular, like the Bizarros and the Rubber City Rebels, they are great bands out of Akron. Todd: So is that the kind of stuff that you're inspired to play? Jason: I'm a big Devo fan, I mean from Ohio and obviously the Pagans and the Dead Boys and I don't know, the Cramps, all these bands. Ohio has a disproportionate amount of amazing bands. You know, for such a lousy state, maybe it wasn't that awful, but it wasn't super fine. I guess that's why all the bands come from there, but yeah, a lot of that stuff. Todd: What's your favorite stuff that you listen to now? Jason: I listen to a lot you know, whatever, all over the place. We all have pretty all over the place tastes. I like a lot of old New Wave still, Gary Numan. I like a lot of dub like King Tubby. I pulled some stuff out from your stacks like the Embarrassment: they are a band from Kansas that I like a lot, I grew up with, kind of. They were around the same time I was growing up there. I like the Micronauts, the Wipers, you know, Real Kids. It's a lot of the stuff actually that right now a lot of people seem to like... the Killed By Death type American punk, as well, you know. And a lot of jazz...it's true. (laughter) Justin: How's this tour been so far? Any near death experiences? Wild stories? Greg: Hector got stung by bees... Hector: I didn't get stung by bees...well it's been pretty fun, lots of drinking. On my part at least. Justin: Are you heading up to Chico next, or where's it going, is it coming back down here or are you just going up north? Gerard: We're going up North and coming back down to Arizona again. Greg: I won 150 nickels in Reno. Justin: How many nickels did you go with? Greg: About two dollars worth. Todd: How do you milk the free drinks? Greg: You play the nickel slots slowly and delicately, like you would a woman, and if you stay there long enough, they'll bring you drinks. But you got to tip them, so it cost a dollar or something. Justin: Alright, so you're a teacher (to Gerard), what do all you do, are any of you doctors, neurosurgeons? Greg: I'm a cobbler. Jason: Hector's a teacher. Hector: I was, I hated it. I couldn't do it. Justin: What did you guys, meet at the school or something? Jason: No, he teaches real people Hector: No, I was a graduate student but now I'm just a temp...I'm a secretary. Todd: One more thing. You have two CDs out and how many seven inches? Greg: two splits Jason: ...and one legit, all us seven inch. It's maybe 55 songs or something. We're on a bunch of comps and stuff. Justin: You guys want to read off an address or anything where people could write you or what not. Gerard: yeah, Po box 3775 , Tucson, Arizona 85722, and email address, well the email, I don't want to read the email address. I hate that over the air, you have to see it printed. (sorry, but you actually won't see it in print) Todd: Hey, I wrote you guys once, and you never wrote me back. Greg: you forgot the payola Jason: that's cause you didn't write us email Justin: anything else you want to say to the world? Jason: Stay in school. |