LWL Interview: Kings of Nuthin'
From Episode #13

INTERVIEWED BY KRISTEN BENNETT

Kristen: I’d like to first go around and have you introduce yourselves and tell us what instrument you play.

Slick: Slick, baritone sax.

Hayden: Hayden, tenor sax.

Tommy: Tommy, tenor sax.

Torr: Torr, I scream.

Zack: I’m Zack, I play piano.

Spike: I’m Spike, I play bass.

Liam: I’m Liam, I kinda play the drums.

Zack: We’re actually down one … Justice is working tonight.

Kristen: On thing that’s interesting is…I’d like you to tell me about one of our seating arrangements here…it’s part of the Green Monster? If you could tell me how you acquired the Green Monster in your rehearsal space?

Zack: I don’t know…

Spike: I don’t know…Torr?

Torr: You know, opportunity like this only knocks once in a lifetime. The opportunity to grab a piece of the Green Monster, and, uh, there ya go!

Kristen: When did you get it, though?

Torr: What was it, a month ago?

Zack: Yeah, it was right around the Axis show is when they were doing some work there. They were taking down pieces of it to put in the bleachers.

Kristen: Did you have trouble getting it out?

Zack: It’s heavy!

Kristen: So nobody harrased you or anything?

Zack: There wasn’t really anybody around!

Kristen: Lucky for you! How did the band come together? I know it started as a three-piece in JP, The Boston Blackouts, a while back. How did you evolve into so many members and instruments?

Liam: It was actually called Shit Your Pants first…[laughs] that was the first name of it….I don’t know, it’s all Torr’s fault anyway.

Torr: It’s a long story…I had just returned from Frisco – I was travelling around the country – and the main thing I wanted to do at the time was start some kind of bastardized Rockabilly band. So I came back here and met some guys - all of us couldn’t play. I was playing bass, another guy was singing, another guy playing drums. And it just slowly evolved until we realized that this kind of music actually took real musicians to play. And I didn’t know any…

Liam: Still don’t!

Torr: And slowly I found some. Do you want me to go through every individual guy, how I met them?

Kristen: If you’d like to.

Torr: Liam. Liam was first. Liam had just come up from New Orleans. He was released by the New Orleans State something, and he was on some probation, and didn’t make it down when he could’ve, but…[to Liam] did you play drums before?

Liam: Yeah…

Zack: Yeah, he played in the Maggotz before.

Torr: Yeah, so he was working out on the drum thing, and the other drummer was a real drunk…

Liam: What, I’m just some faker? [laughing] What the fuck’s that??

Zack: You’re a half-stepper!

Torr: So either way, he stuck around and we tried a bunch of other guys. Who was next?

Zack: You’re gonna have a lot of people to go through…suffice to say there was a steady stream of wingnuts and weird punk rock bike messenger crackhead kind of people that we went through, and we’re the ones left. I met Liam when he was panhandling in Providence…how long ago was that? Six years? Long friggin’ time. I pulled Tommy in off the street, Hayden literally we got him off the street. [band laughs]

Torr: Matty V. bribed him with $20 to get in a cab. [laughs] “Come to Charlestown I’ll pay ya $20!” And he was dumb enough to do it.

Zack: That was the best audition! We got a phone call, we were hanging out here, “Yeah, I just got outta the Bruins’ game, check this guy out!” Then over the phone we listened to him play sax. Spike, we outright stole him.

Torr: I think Spike was the toughest to come to practice, that took the most work. He was already in a serious band at the time, The Racketeers…

Zack: He was the ringer!

Torr: And I just sucked at bass so much these guys kept saying let’s just get another bass player.

Spike: So Liam showed up at every single show I played and said “Come to practice!” And I said, “Yeah yeah yeah, I’ll come to practice sometime!” He said, “No, come to practice this weekend!” So every single time I played with the Racketeers, Liam was there.

Liam: [laughs] Yup. Harassed him until he got fed up!

Spike: Had to join the band to keep Liam from showing up.

Kristen: Well it sounds like it’s been working so far! Your music has been described as something between Swing and Rockabilly. How would you describe it?

Torr: Not swing.

Zack: R&B!

Spike: Not Rockabilly, either.

Torr: We kinda started off as a Rockabilly band, but a lot of us don’t listen to it much these days, we really don’t play much Rockabilly these days. It’s more of a combination of punk rock and rhythm & blues. Early R&B.

Zack: I always thought we were trying to play Little Richard stuff, but just couldn’t make it sound quite the same.

Kristen: Well, you have one part of your performance that’s rather unique…what’s the deal with the fire?

Zack: You know, when you can’t play you gotta keep people entertained somehow…

Torr: How did the fire start? Slick had been around for a while; he started off on guitar, and then we cut back on guitars and opened up on the sax section. He voluteered to play baritone. How did the fire start?

Tommy: That was, uh…Danny [Edge].

Zack: I don’t think Danny wanted to do it.

Slick: I was on pyro tech for a while..I had to light Necro on fire for a couple of shows…

Torr: You know what works good is batteries and steel wool.

Zack: You know what doesn’t work good, is Pam. Pam does not work at all.

Torr: No it doesn’t.

Liam: Yeah, that was a mistake!

Tommy: Sorry, Pam. [laughter]

Kristen: You recently signed with Disaster Records, how did that come about?

Zack: We played a show with the US Bombs, Dwayne Peters was there. It was at the Middle East, so we know people pretty well, and we get away with stuff. Nobody stopped us, so we kinda just cornered him. Threatened him, shoved him around a little bit.

Torr: I think we tried to put him on the bus.

Zack: Yup, that’s usually one of the repertoire, in terms of our convincing methods. So once we got him convinced, we had to convince the business guy, and we had to resort to telephone threats, and then we put out a record.

Kristen: On your latest CD, “Fight Songs for Fuck-Ups,” you have several songs that seem to address particular points in your lives. In the song “11 to 3” you talk about having a bad reputation where you’ve never gone. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? [band laughs]

Zack: I’d say most of that came out of playing out of town…

Spike: Providence.

Zack: Yup, Providence is a problem..not really sure what happened there, but they don’t really want us back. Well, I know a couple things, but….Also going down South is where a lot of that came from. It just seemed like everywhere we’d go, we had some opposition.

Torr: The reputation definitely started spreading around. I’m not sure where they heard what or where the stories came from, but people started talking. We’d come into town and just as soon as we got there people would come up and be like, “You’re the Kings of Nuthin’, I heard you light each other on fire, and drink Robitussin in fuckin’ dumpsters!” Just insane stories that half aren’t even true!

Kristen: So do you think it’s a good reputation, or a bad reputation, or is all PR is good PR?

Zack: It has its merits, but it can be a real drag, too.

Spike: It’s interesting to hear what people come up with.

Zack: It can be very entertaining.

Torr: It sucks when the promoters come up to us and say, “Listen, we’ve heard about you guys, you gotta be on your best behavior tonight,” something something…

Kristen: In another song, “The Kids Will Have No Say,” that talks about the all ages scene in Boston. Can you tell me about your take on the all ages scene?

Zack: It’s tough. It’s really hard to do the shows.

Kristen: Have you experienced any different scenarios…you’ve toured a lot, have you noticed any other towns that might have a more prominent scene?

Slick: You go to another city and an all ages show is just a normal thing. Here it’s a huge event, anywhere other than in the sticks or a VFW Hall. To have one at a club in Boston is really rare, it almost never happens. You ask about it out of town, they’re like “Yeah, we have ‘em all the time.” Anyplace, every town has their all ages punk club except here.

Zack: We’ll go to a small town, they’re like, “Aw, this town stinks! There’s nothing happening…” We’re like “What are you talking about? You have a place that has shows every week that 15 year old kids can get in to!” That’s pretty awesome. There’s only a few places that year after year can have all ages shows, places like Gilman Street in California, and Fireside Bowl in Chicago. You know, we’ve had a few and we lost a few, and Boston can never really get a regular spot the kids can depend on.

Torr: I remember when I was younger and I was going to shows, Boston was one of the biggest scenes in the country as far as I can recall. And it’s sad that it’s become what it has. Cause back then all ages shows were everywhere, we had tons of clubs that would have then, and things have really shut down since then.

Kristen: What’s your perception of the general punk rock scene in Boston?

Torr: Oh, it’s huge! There’s no doubt about that. Just like any city, it goes up and down…Boston’s always had a huge scene, it’s well known for it. But unfortunately these days because of the politics, the kids have no place to go. They can’t see bands, you have to go outside of the town. Either that or you have to go through Clear Channel and Lansdowne Street. You know all about that!

Kristen: Yes I do! Speaking of politics, what’s your take on the WBCN Rumble and the whole concept of that?

Zack: I thought you were going to ask us about bigger things! [laughs] In terms of scene politics and the Rumble…we did that! Played some shows, it was alright…

Kristen: How do you feel about the Curse?

Spike: Of the Bambino!

Torr: Reverse the Curse…

Zack: I think that it’s something that’s really hyped up by the losing bands. I’m not really looking to jump on the bandwagon, but…I think at the end of the day it’s just something for people to talk about and it doesn’t really matter [band laughs]. Yeah, the Curse seems to be in effect…I thought Darkbuster was gonna go a lot further than they did…I was surprised that they won the Rumble, being what they are. They don’t seem like a super radio-friendly band, which is probably the reason why most of us like ‘em. So maybe the curse is a real thing!

Torr: You know, the Rumble always seemed weird to me because you got these local Boston band s that only play Boston on the weekends, and never do anything else, and then you got these other bands outta these scenes that have toured Europe a number of times, that maybe played to a thousand people in California, but in Boston that scene isn’t so big. And those guys only get the first round, while meanwhile this local Boston band wins…I don’t understand what it means. And a band like Diecast, we played with Diecast the year we did it…Diecast in other parts of the country are huge. Even in Boston, with the all ages scene they’re huge. But the BCN Rumble only cater to the older Boston drinking crowd, so…they don’t understand the younger hardcore scene. It doesn’t make any sense to me.

Kristen: On another note, what are some of your favorite bands you’ve gotten to play with?

Liam: Two Man Advantage. That was one ugly fuckin’ dude! [laughs]

Zack: Two Man Advantage was good. They were the ugliest band we played with.

Torr: We’ve played with a bunch of great bands. We’ve been real lucky in that aspect. Because our music is so…no one can decide what it is, we always fall into different categories at shows. Which is a blessing and a curse at the same time. We get to play with a lot of really bad bands, and we get to play with a lot of good bands, too! There’s so many good ones we’ve played with it’s impossible to name them all. We’ve played with everything from punk bands to rockabilly bands, to ska bands to hardcore bands to whatever. There’s a bunch of good music out there.

Kristen: What are your upcoming touring plans, or do you have any?

Torr: We’re leaving in 30 hours, we’re going out to LA to do a festival out there, that’s just sort of a one-off.

Liam: We’re playing with the Dwarves, too.

Torr: Playing with Dwarves…after that we’re going to Europe in another two months, we’re gonna do a month over there. Then probably a small Midwest tour and another East Cost tour. We do everything last minute, we’re so half-assed. I don’t think you can find another half-assed band like us. We’ll sit there and bitch about everything, won’t get anything accomplished.

Kristen: Yet you seem to!

Torr: That’s a matter of opinion! [laughs]

Zack: It’s all an illusion, really.

Kristen: Is there anything you wanted to add, Sean?

Sean: Danny Edge used to be a member of the band. Can you talk about that from before and what it’s like now? How have things changes since his departure?

Torr: Danny was the youngest member of the band at the time; we were all a bit older than him, so he added a lot, especially on the road. When you travel in a van with a band with any group of guys or girls or whatever for a long enough time, you get close whether you like it or not. You get to know everyone pretty well, and Danny really helped out in the fact that on long trips he kept everyone together – he was a real morale booster. And playing wise he was incredible. He added a lot onstage and offstage. That was really hard when he passed away on all of us. And I think in a way that brought us all closer. It was tough, and we had to sit down for many weeks and decide whether we were going to continue playing.

Liam: His mother Dina really actually played a big part in that. I remember her talking to us about it and just saying that we really had to go on. I know that helped me out a lot. And it’s fresh in my mind since we just celebrated her birthday. She was really, really incredible about it – you can’t find a stronger woman than that one.

Torr: And now we’ve become really close friends with her, which is nice also.

Sean: Hayden, you’re the newest member of the band, what’s the experience been like for you?

Hayden: It’s great, man, these guys are good guys. They’ve been teaching me all about old school rhythm & blues, and the wonders of crack cocaine. Fire. Getting burned. [laughter]

Zack: So when Matty pulled you in off the street and brought you into this hellhole, what where you thinking?

Hayden: Well, I’d actually met Liam a couple of months before, when I was playing outside the Fenway, and he seemed like a cool guy. That’s the only reason that I came. Matty’s pretty different from the guys in the band. I was a little freaked out by him, but it was $20…

Torr: $20 and a trick is a trick! Got in the cab. Expected one thing, found another! [band laughs]

Kristen: Is there anything else you’d all like to say before we wrap up?

Torr: Tom?

Zack: That’s your line!

Tommy: Oh! “I regret nothing!” [band laughs]