Pink Smoke

     You can’t really tack on any trendy sub genre tags on Pink Smoke’s music. They’re not your new favorite Post, Dark, Psyche anything.  Pink Smoke are however a meat and potatoes punk rock n’ roll band. They’re influenced by bands like The Damned and The Ramones and all the early rock n’ roll; which influenced all the punk bands in the mid to late ‘70’s. They play aggressive and loud and aren’t afraid to add hooks and melody to their catchy shout along songs. So if you’re looking for the answers to life and the universe to be unfolded unto you in cheap metaphors and pop psychology clichés, you may want to look somewhere else. What Pink Smoke can offer you though is a good time at the end of a long hard day, after all isn’t that what anyone has ever really needed from rock n’ roll? 

Interview by J Castro

Who is currently in Pink Smoke and what does everyone do in the band?

Clint – Vocals & Rhythm Guitar

Brandon – Backing Vocals and Bass
Ryan – Drums

Matt – Lead Guitar

How did you guys all meet and decide to play in a band together?

CLINT: Matt and I have been friends and bandmates since around 2004. We’ve played in many different unremarkable bands in our time. I met Brandon through Craigslist in 2010 and I immediately wanted him in my old band at the time because he looked like Dee Dee Ramone and Glenn Danzig had a child. And he was talking about only knowing like 4 notes. I was in! Matt has known Ryan for quite some time. I haven’t known him that long, but he is a great guy and has a good sense of what he’s doing back there. He is our 3^rd drummer. Spinal Tap syndrome…

How would you describe your bands sound to someone who’s never heard you guys before?

CLINT: There are 2 responses. If it’s someone who’s into whatever our “genre” is, I’ll say, “If you like Slade and Rocket from the Crypt, you might like us.”  If it is someone who I know is very unfamiliar with punk or rock n’ roll, I’ll just say “We sound like the Ramones.”

What sorts of things influence your song lyrics? Are there any subjects you try and stay away from for whatever reason?

CLINT: I just kind of do “stream-of-consciousness” type stuff. When I try to have a subject directly, it’s usually just stuff related to what millions of people have to deal with: Shitty jobs, shitty people, and feeling like your life is going nowhere, relationships . . . blah, blah, blah, angst, as far as subjects to stay away from?  I just don’t wanna get too political. Nobody cares. Let’s just have fun and play loudly.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that writing and/or playing music is therapeutic to them.  What do you think, has music ever helped you through a tough time?

CLINT: Yes. The lyrical part isn’t as important as the playing part. Just playing music has a healing power for me. I can kind of jump out of my skin and act like a maniac and no one really thinks twice about it.

I noticed your band has a Facebook page, and you’re on Tumblr and Instagram as well. Do you think social media has become an essential part of promoting bands and records? Do you think anyone can survive these days without having some sort of presence on social media somewhere?

CLINT: There is an ever-increasing amount of bands that are rejecting social media and just living by word-of-mouth and touring like the “good old days.” It seems to work for bands that have a very strong backing from labels and zines that will do all the promoting for them. It also seems to work for bands that aren’t bound to a full-time job “pay rent or you’re screwed” type situation like us. Unfortunately, we were never the popular kids and don’t have enough underground pull to be that cool and know a lot of people. There is so much competition out there. Especially with the type of music we play. Social media is the only reason anyone even slightly cares about us. We try not to over-saturate though. It’s annoying when bands do that. Plus, bands on social media are aware that Facebook will not let people see most of your posts unless you pay money to Facebook. Who wants to do that? I hear it’s mostly fake “likes” anyway. I’d rather have 2 people “like” the page that care than pay for 200 fake “likes.” We’re not trying to be a huge sensation. We’re smarter than that.

There have been some pretty good bands to come out of Denton, TX, but how is it like to live there now and play shows?  Is there a supportive crowd that gets what you guys are doing musically?

CLINT: Denton is a ghost town right now for our kind of music, even when really great rock n’ roll and punk bands come through you’ll maybe see a half-full venue. Drone, noise and electronic music are actually what are really popular in Denton right now. Punk house shows are on the rise though. There seems to be more people putting them on now. And as a result, way more people come out because you’ve eliminated the need for people to pay and be a certain age. We plan on getting in on that in 2015. On a side note, we’ll always pay respects to the Denton bands that got outta Denton and made themselves known: Riverboat Gamblers, Marked Men and Bad Sports to name a few.

And speaking of shows, tell me about one of the most memorable Pink Smoke shows, good or bad and what made it stick out in your mind?

CLINT: They totally turned on “La Bamba” when Matt was playing his solo! Oh, seriously? Do we have memorable shows?  I think what I find memorable are the shows where stupid things happens. Like one time we played this now demolished “club” (more like big garage) in Dallas. We weren’t told there was a frat-bro paintball party going on at the venue that night. The door guy said we had to pay for our own girlfriends to come in and we wouldn’t get paid. This was our second show, so we just wanted to play. We got a bunch of paint thrown at us and got cut off during our last song when the drunk sound guy decided he REALLY needed to hear “Cowboys From Hell” by Pantera RIGHT NOW. Looking back on it, I should have told them to go fuck themselves. I would now. We kind of have a thing now where we try to clear the venue on purpose, which isn’t hard because not a lot of people come out usually. We just play really loud. If there are any people left after a show, Brandon and I will look at each other, shake our heads and say “Well, we ALMOST cleared it, maybe next time!”

I was reading an interview with Keith Richards and he said that anyone buying digital music is getting short changed. Do you agree with this statement?

CLINT: On one hand, I’m all for digital music. Things like Spotify have made almost any band on the planet accessible. I only use Spotify on my phone now for music. It cleared a whole bunch of room and I can listen to most of the same stuff I have at home. Except Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love” album which is mysteriously missing from Spotify. That kinda brings me to my OTHER hand. I really enjoy having the physical document of a lot of music. I own a lot of LP’s, 45’s, CD’s and cassettes. I am known to spend hours in our local record stores when I have the time and the money. There’s something about having that piece of history in your hands and being able to touch and smell it. It’s wonderful. Keith Richards knows nothing about change. He only uses $100’s.

Tell me about the one band or musician that you feel has inspired you the most in your life.  Tell me about the first time you heard them and how it affected you:

CLINT: I come from an ‘80’s Goth background. When I was a 120 lb. 15 year old with teased hair and shaved-off eyebrows, I’d fill my stereo speakers with Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Cure, Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy and Alien Sex Fiend. In fact, I remember the first time I saw a picture of Nik Fiend. I was about 14 years old. I immediately had to find out everything about this weird, gangly creature. I went out to Hot Topic and they had this little Cleopatra Records compilation called Songs To Wake the Dead. The first song was a re-mix of the Alien Sex Fiend song “Magic.” I was forever changed. SO the short version is – ever since I saw Nik Fiend of Alien Sex Fiend when I was a kid, I knew I wanted to do something that would piss off cops, parents and teachers. Then I got into punk when I was about 18 and saw Dave Vanian, who was naturally the Gothiest punk out there. He was a huge inspiration. In fact, sometimes in October I do a Damned tribute band called Stab Yr Front. It makes more money than Pink Smoke.

Where can people go to hear or buy your music?

CLINT: At shows and online.

pinksmokeband.bigcartel.com  –  Merch and music
pinksmoke.bandcamp.com

What lies ahead in 2015 for Pink Smoke? 

CLINT: We have a new album coming out! It’s called Weirdorama and it was recorded at Cool Devices Studio by Mark and Jeff from the Marked Men, just like No Party. We are doing everything ourselves, so it’s slow going. We hope to have CD’s and cassettes in hand by June and plan for a release show in July or August. On top of the new record coming out, there will be a heck of a lot more shows, a ton more merchandise and loads more alcohol and burritos that need to be consumed.

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Something Fierce

     Originally, Something Fierce started as a straight ahead garage punk band, but with the release of Don’t Be So Cruel, they have become heavily influenced by early Cure, Gang of Four, London Calling influenced guitar stabs and a myriad of post-punk influences. Currently, Something Fierce is finishing up their next LP which, they boast, is “going to blow the shit out of your ass, into the toilet, it'll flush itself. That good.” Our ears are eagerly waiting.

Interview by Ed Stuart

Who’s answering the questions?

Steven

Where is the band from?

Slimetown, Texas

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

Steven, guitar / Niki, bass / Andrew, drums

How did the band start?

Oh, man; long ago.  Various rehearsal sessions with Niki, a punk rocker with a slick mini-van in my apartment complex, turned into awful demos, and Andrew joined up a few months later.  I knew him from various party appearances with one instance of projectile vomiting pinot noir onto my back porch, so he seemed like a solid guy.

In an interview with Redbull.com, it stated “Garcia mixed the album by himself -- the first time he had done that -- and had to learn how to use Pro Tools software. He spent four months locked in his room overdubbing and mixing (the band recorded the album in three days). He added a guitar lick here, a vocal harmony there, and before he knew it, he’d created more than 20 versions of each song.” Is the new LP going along the same lines or is the recording process different this time around?

Unless the plan changes, it will go exactly like this but with fresh gear.  The bass, drums, and rhythm guitar will likely be tracked to tape at a high-end studio.  Then, we'll dump that into the digital realm because, fuck it, we aren't made of money, and I want control over the process.  I want time to think; experiment, and I want a particular sound that no engineer has been able to deliver.  We probably would do well with a big budget, a big-name producer, and a talented mix engineer, but at that point, we would be another band.  And we would sound fucking terrible.

The band recently posted this on their Facebook page “I don't know how to put this...But our next album is going to blow the shit out of your ass, into the toilet, it'll flush itself. That good.”  When is the new LP coming out? Are you working with Dirtnap again?

Definitely.  Dirtnap is our mothership and has shown us unparalleled support in every way imaginable.  The goal is mid-to-late 2014.  I can't yet say what special plans we have, but this will be the best we have to offer at any point in our history.

Come For The Bastards was released in 2006 and is a pretty straight ahead garage punk LP, which Steven, in a Space City Rock interview, described as “[w]e really had no idea what we were doing while writing Come For The Bastards, and it was very much a period of finding ourselves and defining our tastes.” On the other hand, Don’t Be Cruel is a mixture of post-punk and punk-pop influences ranging from Gang of Four, bits of early Cure and The Clash. What would Something Fierce attribute the writing change to? Finally defining the band’s taste?

Maturing tastes, growing skill set.  However it went down, I think it best that every band change at some point.  You can't make the same album over and over because it will only be great once.  We tend to move forward at a pace that surprises even us, but there are songwriting quirks, both derived from influences and fine-tuning our sound, that always reemerge in the process.  For us, as a unit of musicians, some chords just sound right.

Do you think music can still be a vital force in such a disposable age?

Absolutely.  In one form or another, music is a undeniably capable of affecting the pulse, though I find that there isn't enough seeking to be that kind of force.  Disposable songs, dead minds, and everyone is too busy playing the game. 

In a review of Don’t Be So Cruel, The 1^st Five wrote, “with bands like the White Wires and The Mean Jeans spearheading the growing garage-pop movement, I wouldn’t be surprised if Something Fierce took over the world.” How much closer is the band to taking over the world?  On a serious note, how does it feel to read comments like that written about Something Fierce?

Well, we aren't much like Mean Jeans or White Wires, so I'm usually confused with these kinds of statements.  I love both bands for a whole host of reasons, but c'mon, we just aren't the same.  That said we would take over this spinning ball of dicks in mid-to-late 2014.

50 years ago people used to buy music and get their water for free, now people pay for water and get their music for free. How do you think this affects music in any way?

It does not afford many musicians the opportunity, the luxury, to find their stride.  Some bands start with the perfect mixture of energy and instinct, and others take many years to grow into their proper roles.  The good shit does not come easy.  You either pay for it, or you wait for it.

Where can people hear the band?

Bandcamp has the best collection.

What’s next for Something Fierce?

This record, the road, and a party or two.

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The Hex Dispensers

     One can take any given Hex Dispensers song and create a very good screenplay out of it.  The song’s lyrics put you into the skulls of paranoid, delusional individuals straight out of a Coen Brothers movie.  Or it can plant you into the desperate situation of a science fiction calamity.   All of this is delivered with one of the most contagious brands of garage punk combusting in the universe today.   The music rockets into your psyche and forces you to beat your feet and shimmy your shoulders like you’re under some kind of Haitian Voodoo trance.  The full meaning of the name Hex Dispensers has now become clear to me.  I’m going to go find my copy of the Serpent and The Rainbow now.

Interview by Jay Castro

Who’s answering the questions here?

Alex Cuervo

Who is in the band and how do you earn your keep in it?

Alex Cuervo - guitar/vocals

Alyse Mervosh - drums/vocals

Rebecca Whitley - bass/guitar/vocals

Where are all of you from, originally?

The band is from Austin, TX. I'm originally from El Paso, TX. Alyse is from the Washington D.C. area, and Rebecca is from Houston, TX.

What is the bands origin story, how did you all meet and come together?

We had our first rehearsal on 06/06/06 (Really!) Original lineup was myself, Alyse and Tom "Kodiak" Micklethwait (who recently left the band to focus on his amazing BBQ business, Micklethwait Craft Meats). The three of us had been playing in a band called This Damn Town which was winding down and we wanted to keep playing together, so we started this one. We were later joined by David Bessenhoffer on bass. Tom and Dave left the band around 2010 and Rebecca joined on bass. Tom re-joined for about a year, but left again, so now it's back to being a 3-piece.

I’ve seen an interview of you guys talking about the original sound of The Hex

Dispensers being nothing like what actually came out when starting to write and

play songs. What sound did you have in mind when starting out?

I guess initially we talked about something between the Coachwhips and the Marked Men. The raw, fucked up, blown-out quality of the Coachwhips mixed with some of the more refined songwriting and precision of the Marked Men. I can see where we were trying (on some of the early stuff), but the end result became something totally different - mostly because we couldn't pull off that recipe. Not in our wildest dreams.

Tell me about alexcuervo.net and what is it all about? What inspired you to go into

that musical direction?

It's been a longtime dream of mine to write music for films (and television, and video games), and I started getting really serious about it a couple years ago. My day job is writing custom music for clients (advertising/digital, etc...), but my long-term goal is to write music for films/tv/games all of the time. I also do some graphic design and print production freelance work, but lately the music work is more frequent. So far, I've only scored a couple short films and have licensed music for a feature film. I'll be working on scoring for my first feature film this summer - an experimental documentary called Yakona that I'm very excited about. I'm not the primary composer on it - but it's a really ambitious and creative film and I'm blown away to be involved with it.

You recently contributed music to the film “Bad Kids Go To Hell”. With that, plus

the mood of Hex Dispensers records, I am guessing you are fans of Horror movies

and/or books. What are some of your all time favorites of the genre?

Yeah - I'm big into horror and science fiction films/books/comics etc. I strongly prefer supernatural horror or monster movies to the slasher/torture porn kinds of films. I'd say I really just like genre films in general, be they sci-fi, horror, suspense, fantasy or whatever. I guess it's important to point out that we don't really consider ourselves a "horror rock" band, as I'm really not into that aesthetic at all. I just write about stuff that interests me, and the whole spooky/occult/supernatural thing just comes naturally to me. It's hard to pick favorites, I mean I'm crazy about all the classics, like the Shining, the Exorcist, Night of the Living Dead, etc. Some recent films I've really enjoyed have been Cabin in the Woods and Drag Me to Hell. Believe it or not - I really really liked the remake of Evil Dead. I think everybody that's hating on it thinks that they're "supposed to". I found it really well made and totally in the spirit of the original. Lot's of reviewers keep making the rookie mistake of comparing it to Evil Dead 2 instead of the original Evil Dead - which is super annoying.

Who inspired you to learn how to play music and pick up an instrument in the first

place?

Wow - it's a really long list! I've always wanted to play music since I was a really little kid, but I never had any kind of lessons or instruments. I just banged on upside-down trash cans or whatever. Back then I was all about Foreigner, ELO, Queen, or whatever my big sister was listening to in the 70’s. As time went on I discovered skateboarding, which turned me onto punk rock and then it was just a matter of digging up whatever I could find, which in El Paso Texas in the mid 80’s wasn't super easy. Once I discovered magazines like Flipside and Maximum Rock & Roll, I just mail-ordered tons of stuff as I could afford to and it grew from there. By the time I was 16 I was playing drums (badly) in a punk band, and then I went on to sing for another one and I've been at it since.

If The Hex Dispensers could tour with any band/musician from times gone by, who

would it be and why?

Hmmmmm... It's a tricky thing you know, because I could say Black Sabbath, and it would be crazy and decadent, but we would have been booed off the stage every night - so where's the fun in that? I guess the Ramones original lineup would be great just because it would be so awesome to see them that much - and we'd be less likely to get booed, but we'd play a really short set and get the hell out of the way as quickly as possible.

I recently read that out of all different art forms, music has the power to alter a

person’s disposition the fastest. Do you agree with this? Do you have any favorite

music that you can put on that will always lift you from a slump?

I totally agree. It's weird, that sometimes if I'm down in the dumps - I like to listen to really sad stuff. I just hunker down and let myself get super bummed out, and let it pass through. I have a playlist of go-to songs for just such an occasion. "Goodbye" by Reigning Sound really gets me super sad. Beautiful song. "The Grand Tour" by George Jones is another one on the list. If I'm feeling aggro or exercising (neither of which occur all that frequently these days) it's kind of a mix of grimy/weird hip hop like early Wu-Tang or Death Grips with pseudo-metallic hardcore like From Ashes Rise or Black Breath.

I recently read an interview with Keith Richards saying that anyone buying digital

music is getting short changed. Do you agree with this and if so, why?

I like vinyl for it's tangible quality - but I'm a digital convert. I love making playlists and having a ton of music on me all the time. I'm not a purist at all when it comes to fidelity - so digital is A-OK with me. Alyse and I will still spin records while we're having brunch at home or on an occasional Friday night, but mostly - we listen to digital music.

I don’t like using the term “guilty pleasure” because I don’t think anyone should be

made to feel ashamed of anything they like. However with that being said, what to

you listen to that you think a lot of Hex Dispensers fans may be surprised by?

You're right - "guilty pleasure" is a stupid concept. If you're ashamed of liking something then you're too worried about what other people think, and that's shitty. Just stop it. Like what you like and stand up for it. I listen to a lot of film soundtracks and instrumental music because it's what I want to do. I'm just as likely to be listening to Clint Mansell, Explosions in the Sky, John Carpenter, or Mogwai as I am Black Flag, Devo, or Thee Oh Sees. I like a really wide range of music: 60’s soul, 70’s Country, Psych, Hip Hop, Hardcore, New Wave/Darkwave/Goth, Industrial/Experimental, Delta Blues/Folk Blues... all kinds of stuff. I tend to gravitate towards dark, or somber/melancholy kinds of music - but I cast a pretty wide net.

What music have you unleashed on the world and where can people go to hear it or

buy it?

www.thehexdispensers.com - Most of the Hex Dispensers discography is there, as well as some solo releases of mine, and my instrumental electropunk side-project: Espectrostatic.

What does the band have in store for us in the near, or not so near, future?

We're planning on recording a 7" this summer, and we'll be doing a short European tour the first week of September, but other than that and playing Chaos in Tejas - not much is planned. We don't play all that often. I'm working on an Espectrostatic LP which is all instrumental and kind of late 70s/early 80s sci-fi/horror film soundtrack type stuff. Alyse and I are also thinking about starting an instrumental band, but it remains to be seen if we can pull it off or not.





HEX DISPENSERS - My Love is a Bat (OFFICIAL VID) from Jon on Vimeo.

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