The party never stops with 48 Thrills!

Portland Oregon's 48 Thrills play honest, hard hitting punk rock with ferociously entrapping hooks . It's fun, it's loud, and it's unpretentious.  It's  music that reminds me of the bands that first drew me into DIY punk rock in the first place and it reminds me of why I still continue to love it decades later.  Call it "pop" punk, "melodic" punk whatever, but the word "great" better be in there somewhere!

Interview by J Jordan Castro

So let’s start out with some introductions, who is currently in 48 Thrills and what does everyone do in the band?

Jimmy plays bass and grunts.

Ken plays drums and hits all the high notes.

Davey is the new guy playing lead guitar and sings as much as I can get him to (which is a lot).

I am Josh and I jangle the rhythm guitar and sing to the best of my abilities.

What band or musician made you want to pick up an instrument and learn to play/write music?

JOSH: I originally played bass and just thought it would be cool to play in a band, for whatever reason my bass guitar hero was Johnny Personality from The Vindictives, that dude was great and sang all kinds of backup vocals which I loved. When I swapped to a 6 string I'd say that Paul Weller and Joe Strummer were people I think I try to emulate.

Daredevil LP released October 31st 2009

How would you describe your music to your music to someone that’s never heard your band before?

JOSH: High energy, sweaty, sing-a-long fun. 

One of the first things that really stood out to me about your music was your lyrics.  There are only a few active melodic punk band that I’ve heard that still impress me with their lyrics (Moral Crux and M.O.T.O. immediately come to mind).  Can you tell me about one of the most unlikely person or event that inspired you to want to commemorate to song?

JOSH: Most of the lyrics I've written have been about the usual suspects (ie: work/ex's/crushes). I have given a go at a few political songs but I always feel like I am not articulating my point well or come off not knowing what I'm talking about. So my answer is probably my dog that passed a few years ago. It probably took me 2 years to finish it, I never thought I would write a song about a dog but he was the best.

You guys are based in Portland Oregon is that correct?  With so much going on there musically, do things ever get competitive with other bands?

JOSH: You are constantly playing the same nights as other buddy bands that are playing other venues, just sorta is how it is. 

What sort of feelings or sentiments do you hope your audience walks away with after seeing a 48 Thrills performance? 

JOSH: That we were fun and didn't suck.

I’ve heard people say that playing/writing music has been therapeutic to them.  Have you ever found this to be true in your own lives?

JOSH: Definitely. I feel like I have written some of my best songs while angry haha.

Hand Claps and Ass Slaps EP released December 17th 2010

 This is the part of the interview that I call “Four Questions I Shamelessly Stole From Other Interviewers.” Feel free to elaborate as much or as little as you wish:

(1. What was the first concert you ever attended without your parents?

JOSH: When I was in high school over 20 years ago I saw Sprung Monkey and Unwritten Law at a Scottish Rite Center in San Diego

(2. What was the first band t-shirt that you can remember owning?

JOSH: Iron Maiden

(3. What’s the first album you remember picking out yourself?

JOSH: Michael Jackson Thriller

 (4. What was the first band poster that hung on your bedroom wall?

JOSH: Iron Maiden

Where are the best places to go or log on to hear and buy 48 Thrills music?

JOSH:  All of our stuff can be downloaded/streamed/purchased at 48thrills.bandcamp.com

Than's How It Go!Oh!Ohs! LP released  October 10th 2014

What’s coming up for you guys in the near future?

JOSH: We are going to record a couple songs for a 7" and film a video for one of them in a few weeks which will be a first for us.

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Golden Handcuffs

Golden Handcuffs from left to right: Russ, Keagan, Lucas

Golden Handcuffs play Rock N' Roll with a fantastic blend of Glam, Punk, and Power Pop peppered throughout their songs.   The band recently took some time to answer some questions for us about their influences, their hometown of Portland Oregon and the friendly competition within their scene.

Interview by J Castro

Let’s start off by telling me who is currently in Golden Handcuffs and what everyone does in the band:

-Russ London: Guitar/Vocals/Lyrics

-Lucas Schmit: Bass/Backing Vocals

-Keagan O’Brien: Drums

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

RL:  We got together through musician-wanted ads about 3 years ago. I remember Keagan showed up to that first practice with just this old marching drum, a snare, floor tom and maybe a ride. I wasn’t really sure how it was going to work but those first practices we played the trashiest 2-chord shit. It was great.

LS: We hit it off right away. A genuine interest in gross old cartoons, The Cramps, and conspiracy theories.

KO: Yes I remember Russ looking like a stoner version of Jimmy Fallon and recognizing Lucas from a couple local shows.

You guys just changed your name from Sharks from Mars, a name you’ve gone by for a few years now, to Golden Handcuffs.  Why the name change?

RL: Yeah we needed to shake things up and go a different route. All those hours spent in the van smelling rotten feet and half drank and long-expired milkshakes had us pretty delirious when we were thinking of names on tour. I’m pretty sure we were in weird places in our heads whenever we hashed out that name. I can’t speak for the guys on this, but about half way to Las Vegas a mix of terrible cocktails, no sleep, and Texaco’s finest had me feeling like a millionaire.

LS: I love the new name. Our general style has changed a lot, and I think our current name is much more fitting to everything we are doing now.

What band or musician would you say had the biggest influence in your life?  If you can recall, tell me a bit about the first time you heard them and how it changed you from that moment forward:

RL: Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. I can remember hearing Ice Cream Man and his version of Buzz Buzz Buzz when I was like 2 or 3 years old and just laughing and dancing and thinking it was the greatest. That’s the stuff that keeps me writing songs and making poor life choices.

KO: In middle school my mom didn’t allow me to listen to all the stuff the other kids were listening to. She was cool with me listening to Lou Reed and The New York Dolls and Minor Threat though because she thought it was nice I was listening to music that was demoting the sex drugs and alcohol lifestyle. (The lifestyle that I will be living when I finally retire and am able to take out my 401k).

LS: Lemmy for sure. I remember my old man showing me a live video of Motorhead, and being blown away by it. The boots, the denim, the rings, the bass, the attitude. Rock & Roll. Live To Win fucked me up forever!

I’ve heard from some people that writing or playing music is therapeutic to them. Have you ever found this to be true?  

RL: Yeah I can get behind that. The most therapeutic thing about writing songs for me is making them fun, good, and about nothing much more than one feeling or thought. I try to avoid anything that takes more than a sentence or two to explain.

Golden Handcuffs are currently based in Portland Oregon.  With so many great active bands there, is it tough to get noticed and to get people to come to shows?  Do you feel like you’re going to have to start from square one with the new name?

RL: Yeah man it’s competitive, but that kind of thing just makes all the bands better. We know we can share a van for over a week without planning elaborate ways to murder each other, and that’s more than most new bands can say.

What feeling or sentiment do you want your audience to walk away with after seeing you guys play live?

RL: How can I party with these guys? Would they be so kind as to crash at my place?

LS: Yeah just blown away.

This is the part of the interview that I like to call “four questions I stole from other interviewers”:

1.      What was the first album you bought with your own money?

RL: Probably the Wedding Singer soundtrack. I remember it had White Wedding and I thought that was pretty rad.

LS: Reverend Horton Heat - Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em

KO: NOFX- 45 or 46 songs that weren’t good enough to go on our other records

2.      What was the first band t-shirt you ever owned?

RL: The MC5

KO: The Exploited

LS: The Misfits

         

3.      What was the first concert you went to without your parents?

RL: Public Vacuum at Ray’s Golden Lion in Richland WA

LS: The Nekromantix with Shark Soup at the Hawthorne Theater in Portland OR

KO: No Regrets at Landslide Skate park in Detroit MI

4.      What band or musician's picture was the first to get hung up on your

bedroom wall?

RL: Metallica – Master of Puppets flag

KO: A Mudvayne poster in 5^th grade… this is what made my mom limit my music selection, thanks mom.

LS: 800 Octane - Rise Again. Some local favorites of mine.

When can we expect the arrival of Golden Handcuffs debut release?

RL: As soon as we can make it happen! We have our debut single all recorded and we’re heading back into the studio in late September to work on some more tracks. Maus at Red Lantern Studios here in Portland did a hell of a job! We’re shooting for having our vinyl debut out by early 2016.

Follow Golden Handcuffs!

Facebook.com/goldenhandcuffspdx

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Youthbitch

     Sometimes half of the battle is too get people just talking about your band and with a name like Youthbitch you might not have a problem. But having a name that garners attention isn’t enough; the band needs the tunes to back it up, which, Youthbitch does. A healthy mix of Exploding Hearts and Dictators got Dirtnap so impressed that they stated “this is the first time we’ve done a 7″ with an up-and coming local band in years.” This was hot off the heels of 2012’s mega output of not one, but two LP’s and their new single, on Dirtnap/Jonny Cat is currently out now. By the end of the year, Youthbitch might have another LP so I would start listening to this band now.

Interview by Ed Stuart

Who’s answering the questions?

Stevie

Where is the band from?

Portland, Oregon via flyover country.

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

Nico "No-Good Nick" Suavey plays the fumbly bumbles on the small mouth bass and sings. Joe Benasshole (none of these nicknames are consensual) rocks the skins. R. P. Smith plays the fiddly bits on the lead axe and I play second fiddle and also sing.

How did the band start?

Me ‘n Nico played real shitty stuff when we were 18 and then came Rob and Joe later to make it an actual band. Members were selected in keeping with astrological compatibility and wiener size.

How did the band name come about? From reading different reviews there is a mixed reaction about the band’s name than the band’s sound.

It's from the FBI lyrics to Louie Louie ("hey Youthbitch, hey love maker, now hold my bone"). We were like 18 when we picked it. It didn't seem like a good name at the time and it still doesn't, but we didn't come to give good names, we came to rock.

The band members are originally from Illinois, St Louis, and Idaho. Why the move to Portland? What drew you guys there instead of other big US cities?

Portland's nice and cheap and a great place to ruin your life.

Don’t Fuck This Up was called “It might be the best local document of such a sound since the Exploding Hearts’ Guitar Romantic, and it deserves a vaunted spot next to Gentleman Jesse’s self-titled debut in taxonomies of contemporary classics” by the Willamette Week. Guitar Romantic is arguably a classic LP and one of the best of the last fifteen years. How does it feel for Youthbitch to be held in such high regard with such a review?

It was really nice of him to say that, but it's not such a good idea to take reviews to heart. Let's take a look at some other reviews: MRR says we're a "lame Nobunny" with no hooks. A YouTube commenter says "it sounds like they're playing their guitars with their clitorises" (best one yet). Just the other day some guy driving by in a pickup called me a faggot.

What bands/LP’s influence or have influenced Youthbitch’s songwriting?

I think Sam Cooke was a big part of Nico's songs on the last record. Rob really likes Ross the Boss from the Dictators. One really important song is "All Over Blues Feeling" by Champion Jack Dupree. It's like a Rosetta Sone for all our stupid ideas.

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

Everyone needs jams. Jams are everywhere now, and some people say that devalues the jams, but really if jams are important to you then it just means more jams.

Youthbitch released two LP’s in 2012, Youthbitch Youthbitch Youthbitch Youthbitch Youthbitch and Don’t Fuck This Up?  Then follow it up with the I’m In Love With Girls single in the early part of 2013. How does the band stay so prolific? Why not wait and give each release a little breathing room? 

I think it's a pretty standard amount of output for bands our age. We had even more stuff that year than those releases, there were releases with side projects and tracks on comps and whatnot, but if you step back and think about it it's not that much. If I were a baker and I only made five pies in 2012, wouldn't this question be more like, "Dude, why are you such a shitty baker?"

What have been some of Youthbitch’s favorite shows? I see the band has played with The Spits and Mean Jeans.

My favorite so far was on tour with Therapists when we played with Primitive Hearts and Shannon and the Clams in SF. Also, SMMR BMMR last year was awesome, Kepi Ghoulie played a set with the jeans, all the beer was free, and Dirty Donny airbrushed my jacket.

How did Youthbitch hook up with Dirtnap? On the Dirtnap site they state, “this is the first time we’ve done a 7″ with an up-and coming local band in years. Once you hear this, though, it will be immediately apparent why we broke our long dry-spell.”

Starting when Nico was 17, he used to go to Ken's store and bug him all the time. At some point over the course of five years I think we started to suck a lot less and he started to like us. He heard our LP on Jonny Cat and wanted to do a split release with the 7-inch.

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?  

Buncha thirsty fellas with headphones on having a gay ole time.

Where can people hear the band?

http://youthbitch.bandcamp.com ! That's also how you can make sure we don't go hungry. Get our LP and 7" from the Green Noise website ( http://www.greennoiserecords.com/ ) Lots of videos on youtube too (another one on the way).

What’s next for Youthbitch?

More shows on the West Coast. Someday a van and then more shows everywhere. 

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