The Disconnects

     Remember the days when rock n’ roll actually meant something to people, when you could relate to the music on an emotional level and the bands didn’t use obscure literary references and impossible abstract metaphors in their songs? Well Neptune City, NJ’s The Disconnects do! These boys play honest to goodness blood stained, tear soaked rhythm n blues based punk rock n' roll. The kind of music that has resonated in the caverns of the human condition for decades, and with good reason. Everyone runs out of luck, out of money, out of love and these Jersey boys are here to tell you it’s OK to be miserable and pissed off about it sometimes, because they’ve been there too. In time, deep down inside the feeling of knowing everything is going to be alright eventually starts to pool at the bottom of your heart. Listening to the Disconnects just makes that feeling bubble to the surface faster!

Interview by J Castro

Let’s start with introductions! Who is currently in the band and what does everyone do in it?

RYAN: The group consists of: Ryan - Vocals / Guitar, Tommy – Guitar, Anthony – Bass

and Rob - Drums

How did you all first meet and decide to play music together?

RYAN: We all had bands before this, Tommy and Anthony were in a great band called The Flareups. I was in a group called The Stun Gunz with our first drummer. I had seen Tommy around a bit but we never spoke back then. Our bands had broken up and I was doing gigs with random bands just to play. I was opening up one night for Cheetah Chrome in NJ and Tommy was at the show. We did a cover of Pirate Love by Thunders and Tommy came up to me and said he liked the way I played so we set up a time to play together. I pretty much had the first EP written at that time and played the songs for him. He was putting leads down on the songs that blew me away and we knew we had a little something there. He called Anthony and I called Joe our first drummer to see if they wanted to put something together and we hit it off. I knew Anthony was the guy as soon as I heard him talking about The Only Ones haha. Rob is our new drummer, formerly of River City Rebels and he couldn't fit any better. He was a Disconnect long before he even knew!

Is this the sound you had in mind when first starting the Disconnects or did the music kind of take its own direction when you started playing together?

RYAN: We certainly had a good idea of what we wanted to do. Tommy and I would play guitar then spin records, and we had the same ideas about the direction of the group. We get compared a lot to bands like Dead Boys and Johnny Thunders. They are definitely influences and you can hear hints of them in our songs but I don't think we really sound like them. We sound like The Disconnects. When you have a song in your head and then you finally lay it down with a full band its cool how it changes. Everybody adds something to it and that's when you get your sound. That's why I am really proud of Wake Up Dead. We came into our own.

Who would you say has had the biggest musical influence on you? If you can recall, tell me a bit about the first time you heard this band or musician and how it changed you from that point on.

RYAN: Biggest musical influence for myself is Chuck Berry. Not only is every Disconnects lead you hear rooted in Chuck, but every good Rock N Roll lead is! Another huge influence was Lou Reed. I was really young when I discovered Lou, and that could be the reason I'm so screwed up today, haha. The first record I ever bought was Lou Reed - Transformer. I had no idea who he was or what it sounded like but I saw the cover and the back of the album and was pretty damn curious. At 13 playing that record on my parent’s record player I'm sure they were worried ha. It's still in my top 5 favorites. It just said to me, it's okay, be you and fuck ‘em all. That later opened me up to The Velvet Underground and beyond. I was in Rock N Roll heaven baby.

What typically inspires your song lyrics? Can you remember the most unusual person or event that prompted you to want to write a song about?

RYAN: Whatever I'm feeling really. On our newest LP Wake Up Dead there are some truly ferocious songs and then some more lovey kinda tunes. It's life, you self loathe, you fall in love, you get lonely, you get depressed, you pull yourself out of it, you dream of a better future, you party. Highs and lows, ya know? Some of those songs were written in the lowest points of my life and some written at the best. You write what you know, your experience. Every song on that LP is based on a person or a feeling at the moment it was written, good or bad. I wrote “I Don't Mind” at a time in my life where I was living without electricity or hot water for a while and really struggling. I remember sitting in the dark with an acoustic guitar sorting it out. It makes me smile because it's a really sweet melody in such a shit situation. That's The Disconnects.

Craven Moorehead, a local DJ out here in Phoenix, AZ played a song off of your new LP Wake up Dead a couple of months ago on his radio show Skapunk Radio. Are you guys taken back at all on how well received and how much critical acclaim the new LP had gotten?

RYAN: Haha I remember them playing it but I didn't know that's the name he went by. I am surprised by how many people are getting into the group. I wrote most of these songs in my basement and to hear stations and magazines all over the world talking about it is awesome. I'm really grateful when someone gives us a write up or plays our songs and I'm kind of amazed how far it's reached.. I'm just a beer drinking zilch from Jersey pouring his guts out on vinyl and am just happy someone’s listening.

You guys are getting ready to go to Europe at the end of the month touring with The Sick Livers. How did you hook up with those guys and will this be the Disconnects first time in the UK?

RYAN: If you haven't heard The Sick Livers you need to! They are, as the Welsh say: tidy as fuck. Long before this tour even got put together Dom Daley of Glunk Records in the UK was in touch with us and was digging our tunes.  He even came to see us in Brooklyn on holiday! I got my hands on The Livers first LP and was into it! Our fabulous label Baldy Longhair Records got us distribution through Glunk in the UK and the records were selling pretty well. Well enough to put a tour together. Dom was championing The Livers on his label and it seemed like a no brainer. This is our first time touring the UK or anywhere outside the US. Glunk and The Livers have been very kind to us, even teaching me the slang I need to know over there! The Livers got a new LP coming out in August on Glunk Records in the UK and Baldy Longhair in the USA and it is just ripping man.

The Disconnects have shared a bill with a lot of legendary punk bands, most recently G.B.H. and The Rezillos. A man wiser than myself once said to me “Don’t meet your heroes, they’ll always disappoint”. In your experience, have you ever found this to be true?

RYAN: Yes, it was very cool to play with those bands. We have had the great pleasure of opening for a lot of bands we look up to. Fuck that don't meet your heroes thing, meet ‘em all and learn what you can from them! They are people like all of us.

I was reading this interview with a former drummer for The Cramps and he was talking about how guarded Lux and Ivy were with their image, so much so that he said they seemed imprisoned by it. How important do you think image is or should it be to rock n roll bands these days? 
RYAN: That's interesting! I'm obviously too young to know anyone in The Cramps but I've heard that Lux was a shy kinda guy outside the stage which is funny considering what a deviant he was on it. Image, a much talked about topic in the punk scene. Personally, I love when people get creative with fashion and express themselves. I fucking despise when people where Motorhead shirts because they think it's cool and can't name an album they put out. I don't care how you look. Just be you. Style is style and everyone has a different one. Also, don't be the douche in the back of the club all gussied up with your arms folded too cool to care about whose playing. You suck, and we all know you do.

Where can people go to hear or find out more about The Disconnects?

RYAN: You can go to our Facebook page where we post our news most and along with THEDISCONNECTS.COM You can also find us at your nearest hot dog vendor.

What’s in store for the future of The Disconnects?

RYAN: Well we have the UK tour in August, then a few shows in the states when we return. Then, we are gonna throw some meat on the grill, drink some beers and write another album. Also, look out next summer for a Disconnects / Sick Livers US tour. Thanks for the interview and anyone who reads this, start a band so we can come to your town and play a show with you. Cheers!

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Low Doses

     In the short time they’ve been together, Low Doses have already molded a unique sound for themselves. It’s like they’ve taken hardy bites of New York’s heroin smeared, tight leather jacketed rock n’ roll swagger from the Thunders/Bators/Vincent class of the late ‘70’s, popped pills crammed with mid ‘60’s UK mod/beat like early Who and Small Faces and chased those pills with a shot of American garage frenzy similar to The Sonics.  The songs have a foundation poured with unforgettable melodies that quickly set in your brain; they’re framed in thick, sturdy guitar chords and coated with zesty tempos that command your attention. These East Coast city dwellers effortlessly blur the lines of garage and power-pop, and they’re just getting started on us! 

Interview by J Castro

Let’s start by telling me who’s currently in the band and what you all do in The Low Doses:

Right now we’ve got Ryan Masterson on guitar and vocals, Joi La Cour on Bass, and a rotating cast of drummers. We started the band with Vin Russoniello, and he plays drums on most of our recordings.

How did you meet and decide to play music together?

RYAN: We’ve all pretty much known each other since high school. Vin and I played in a band together back then, and our best friend had a hopeless crush on Joi, so we knew her that way. Vin and I reconnected in 2013 and started the Low Doses, and then I ran into Joi at the music store where she was working. I didn’t have the balls to ask her on a date, so I asked her to play bass with us and she totally fell for it!

JOI: I was in Livids (R.I.P.) at the time, but I thought he was hot so I said yeah and gave him my email address. It took him like 6 months to actually send me a song, but when he finally did I really liked it and so I started playing with them when Livids broke up.

Who do you feel had the biggest influence on you musically and please tell me about the first time you heard this band/musician: 

RYAN: I’d have to say my biggest influence as a guitar player is Johnny Thunders and as a songwriter: Ray Davies and Paul Collins. The first time I heard the New York Dolls was in high school and something definitely clicked inside my head. I don’t think I fully understood it at the time though. I mean, I spent a lot more time listening to the usual teenage classic rock shit before I understood where the Dolls were coming from and what made them so exciting. Eventually I got into more of the bands that they influenced and were influenced by and I think that has really helped shape our sound.

As for the other two--well, who can remember the first time they heard the Kinks? And the first time I heard the Nerves I definitely had the feeling that they were pretty much made to suit my exact musical tastes. I wished that I wrote every one of their songs.

JOI:  I’ve been a ‘60’s rock n’ roll girl pretty much since birth, but by the time I started playing bass I was basically into mostly punk, which is lucky because I had no formal musical training. The Libertines inspired me to take my playing a bit more seriously and though I learned how to play guitar by mimicking those guys, I ended up in a fast n’ dirty punk band called Livids with ex-New Bomb Turks singer Eric Davidson. I think the Kinks are our mutual heroes and our love of those songs is our tightest musical bond.

The Low Doses are currently based in New York and New Jersey. Is it tough being in a band and living in such a huge city with so much going on every night? 

RYAN: Yeah, for sure. Everything in New York is so competitive. I couldn’t even get a job as a fucking waiter when I first moved here and I grew up working in restaurants. Also, I live in New York right now but Joi lives back in our hometown of Trenton so we’re sorta caught between two places. But back in Jersey there’s not much going on in the way of our style of music so we don’t find ourselves playing there too often. There’s mostly just a market for Bon Jovi covers.

JOI: To be fair, they’re starting to throw a lot of Nickelback in the mix…

You guys recently made a video for the song “You’re Gonna Lose.” Tell me a bit about it if you will? 

JOI: My best friend since childhood, Jackie Roman, approached us about making a video that she had already conjured up in her head. She wanted to play out scenes from the works of the photographer Duane Michals and use footage that she had taken while riding on trains throughout the NJ/NY area. All we had to do was show up and let Jackie work her magic. We were really stoked to see the final product!

I recently read an article about music videos still being relevant despite MTV pretty much no longer showing them. Why do you think their popularity remains?

RYAN: Hmm. I’ve never really thought about it, but I guess since everyone is walking around with a video camera on their phone and with YouTube and so many other platforms available to share them, it just makes sense that bands are gonna continue to make them so yeah, technology. 

JOI: We don’t fancy ourselves internet/technology savvy folks, but hey, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Also, they can be a lot of fun and interesting in their own right. Just look at what Jackie did with ours!

On your Facebook page you list the 1960’s and 1970’s as influences. Are there any current bands that you enjoy listening to and find inspiration in? 

RYAN: Uhh, Jan Terri’s still making music, isn’t she??? But seriously, yeah, there are plenty of current bands I enjoy listening to. I was checking out your 2014 top ten lists earlier, and I love so many of the bands you guys covered. You know, stuff like Dino’s Boys and Barreracudas. But I don’t really use newer bands for source material or inspiration. If anything, I’ll go back in time further to generate songwriting ideas.

What sorts of things influence your song lyrics? Are there any particular topics you purposely stay away from, if so why?

RYAN: Well they say write what you know right? So I write about drugs and girls, naturally. I enjoy staying within the usual bounds of rock and roll lyrics. There aren’t any topics I shy away from but I try to keep things simple and try not to make any “statements” or anything like that. I’m not a good enough writer so it doesn’t come off well if I try to make things too serious. But I really wish I could be one of those songwriters who make pointed social observations, like Ray Davies or Paul Weller, ha ha.

When you play in front of an audience, what sort of feeling or sentiment do you hope to convey to an audience that hopefully they will walk away with?

RYAN: We really just want our shows to be fun and we strive to hold people’s attention. If I look out and see a bunch of people checking their Facebook, then I know we’re doing something wrong.

JOI: Yeah, we just don’t want anyone to walk away, ya know, during the set.            

I always hear golfers say how many “life lessons” can be learned from playing golf.  What sorts of “life lessons” do you feel people learn from being in a band?

RYAN: I definitely wasn’t expecting to see any golf related questions, ha ha. I prefer to get my life lessons from baseball. I’m a Mets fan, so I’ve learned to dream big and achieve small. Being in a band is kinda the same I guess.

What’s the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you?

RYAN: Don’t date your bandmate…whoops.

JOI: Don’t wear that on stage.

What’s in store for the Low Doses in 2015?

We just recorded some songs at Volume IV studios in New Brunswick, NJ, two of which will be coming out on 7” this spring. We’d really like to go back there make an LP later this year if we can and we’re gonna make another video, this time for our song “Bathroom Stall.” But mostly we’re just focusing getting all of our band members living in one place so we can play out more regularly. Definitely look for us to be playing in the New York area a lot this summer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRN08x9fvwU

https://www.facebook.com/TheLowDoses

http://lowdoses.bandcamp.com/

https://soundcloud.com/the-low-doses

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Night Birds

Night Birds have taken the ingredients of those early Frontier Records bands (Adolescents, T.S.O.L., Circle Jerks and Rikk Agnew), mixed them in a blender, topped that cocktail with a layer of D.I. and mixed in East Bay Ray’s surf style guitar for good measure. Night Birds since its inception have been highly prolific. In 2011, the band put out one LP, The Other Side of Darkness and one EP, Midnight Movies. Now in 2013, Night Birds are set to follow in their own footsteps with the releases of Born To Die In Suburbia LP and the previously released Maimed For The Masses EP. In their own words, Night Birds are a “[s]peedy punk band with hooks and melody,” but really they are more than that. Night Birds have taken the essence of their influences and positioned themselves to be the Frontier style band of today.

Interview by Ed Stuart

Who’s answering the questions?

BRIAN GORSEGNER, sing of NIGHT BIRDS

Where is the band from?

NEW JERSEY

Who is in the band and what instrument do they play?

Joe Keller - bass

Brian Gorsegner - vocals

Ryan McHale - drums

PJ Russo - guitar

How did the band start?

In 2009 Joe and I started the band. I was gonna play drums, and we had another guy singing and playing guitar. We wrote a couple of songs, and did some covers. We actually wrote "Paranoid Times" with that lineup. The band was sort of split with the sound we were going for, so it sort of fell apart, and then we recruited Mike to play guitar and our friend the Coastman to play drums. That lineup last a while until ending up with the lineup we have now, of PJ playing guitar, and Ryan playing drums.

Any particular bands that the band had in mind or was listening to on heavy rotation while writing the new LP Born To Die In Suburbia?

Naked Raygun, the Dwarves, Angry Samoans, the Damned, New Bomb Turks. Stuff like that. Speedy punk bands with hooks and melody. Same kind of stuff we've always dug. While recording BTDIS I listened to the Pixies "Bossanava" while driving to the studio every day. Not sure why. But recording was going really well, so after I had done it coincidentally the first 3 days I continued to do it for the other 8 or 9 because I got superstitious. 

Following up this question on older releases, I hear a lot of D.I. influence. More the early stuff like Team Goon, Horse Bites Dog Cries and Ancient Artifacts. Are the bands fans of D.I.?

Of course, those records are great!

How did the band hook up with Fat Wreck? Any reason why the band chose to go with Grave Mistake again to release their new LP?

I heard that Chad, the guy who runs Fats day-to-day operation, was a fan of Night Birds. I sent him some demos, and he dug them. He sent them up the chain and everyone liked them. Younger kids who might not know who Night Birds are still check out Fat Wreck stuff, and I was really interested in trying to get our bands music out to younger kids. As much as I still love punk now, it was really important to me when I was 14 and had a huge impact. I wonder sometimes where I'd be now had I never discovered punk, and odds are I would not have liked the person I ended up being. As much as we appreciate anyone at any age digging our band, I think it's important to expose ourselves to young children... uhh... I mean... errr...

As far as doing our LP on Grave Mistake, we had all agreed on doing the album together a ways back. Alex has always really looked out for us and done everything in his power to make sure we were happy. He puts out our records, but he's also our friend. He's toured with us, booked us shows, put us up in his own home, stuff like that. As we grow as a band, Grave Mistake seems to grow as a label, and vice versa, so it's beneficial for both of us to work our butts off.

Faster and Louder described Night Birds in this way “These guys continue to draw inspiration from the surf-inflected punk/hardcore sounds of early '80’s California without sounding like copycats or second-raters. And like only the best punk bands can do, they create a sound that's true to a classic period yet still highly relevant to present times.”  Do you feel this review is accurate? How does the band feel after reading a review like that? 

I think Josh has written my favorite Night Birds reviews ever, and he always has really flattering stuff to say. I'd like to think it's true too. I don't think there is anything wrong with taking cues from the bands you love; it just gets boring when a band sounds exactly like another band. Truth be told, I was never a fan of Bl'ast! because I thought they just tried TOO hard to sound like Black Flag. It just sounds awkward to me. But when a band draws from a large pool of stuff and make it their own, the results can be cool.

In 2011, Night Birds “…played 60 shows and did 2 records [that] year,” Midnight Movies and The Other Side of Darkness. In 2013, the band has released one EP Maimed For The Masses this year and has a new LP coming out this summer, Born To Die In Suburbia. Is 2013 looking to be as busy or busier than 2011? 

This year is looking more like 50 shows. My wife and I are expecting a baby in November so that will mean some sort of break from shows. We are trying to cram in as much now as we can. Had I not gone and pro created, we would have hit over 60 this year since we had a 2.5 European tour booked that I needed to postpone. We'll make it up though!

How was it playing Insubordination Fest?

Always fun. It's a pretty tight knit scene and we've made friends with lots of those pop punk weirdos through the years. Our past bands always played Insub Fest too... The Ergs, For Science, Psyched To Die... It's nice and close and people fly in from all over.

Night Birds got the ball rolling pretty quickly with having releases out with Dirtnap and No Way Records. In addition to the band’s songs being very good do you feel with Night Birds having members who were in known bands previously made it any easier getting shows/releasing records/getting press at the beginning of the band’s life? How did the band use its member’s prior experience in obtaining this goal?

Sure, if people dig a band they are always likely to check out what those members do next. The goal is to make sure to deliver something good right off the bat, since you've got that advantage, and I still think our demo and first couple of 7"’s hold up just as well as what we are releasing now. You can have a big head start but at the end of the day if your band sucks you are just going to suck in front of a larger audience.

If you had the choice which classic California label would you rather have put out a Night Birds release, Frontier or Posh Boy?

Frontier had "Group Sex", Adolescents "s/t", TSOL "dance with me", Rikk Agnew "all by myself", Suicidal Tendencies "s/t"... Posh Boy had the Rodney comps, the Beach Blvd comp, Agent Orange "living in darkness", and I want to say an early Social Distortion 7"? Maybe "1945"? Either way I'll go Frontier, though Posh Boy had the cooler logo.

I liked how the band put 3 exclusive B-sides on the Maimed For The Masses EP. A lot of bands put out a teaser EP and it just has a couple songs that will be featured on the upcoming LP. What made the band decide to the release this way?

We wrote as many songs as we could for the new album, and then cropped out what we didn't want, and were still left then more songs we wanted to put on the album, so we decided to do the single. Any of those songs could have just as easily ended up on the album but we tried to figure which ones went best together and split them between the "Maimed" EP and "BTDIS"...

Where can people hear Night Birds and what’s next for the band?
http://night-birds.bandcamp.com/

Our record comes out in two weeks, and then we are doing a record release weekend with Omegas and Give, a short tour with Red Dons, and a short tour with Zero Boys! We'll be playing on a boat somewhere at some point too! Keep your eyes peeled. Thanks.

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