BY
NANCY HAMMERLEThe Lost City Angels are a hard drivin', pop punk band outta Boston that's on the brink of breaking bigtime. The Angels are Ron Ragona, singer, Chris Duggan, bass, Adam Shaw, drums, Nick Bacon, lead guitar, and Drew Indingaro, guitar. I caught up with the guys in Adam's apartment the night before they opened for Stiff Little Fingers at the Paradise Rock Club. Unfortunately, an interview writing format can't really convey the hilarity, the gesticulating, or the somber notes that well.
Nancy: You guys are a fairly new band, just about two years old!
Drew: We started in July 2000.
Adam: I don't remember. I don't even remember what the fuck I had for breakfast this morning!
Nancy: You had too much to drink last night, Adam!
Adam: Not drink TOO much! I just don't drink enough!
Nancy: So who started the band?
Drew: It's a very weird story...
Adam: I used to play in a band called United We Stand but I stopped playing the drums because my fucking life sucked. I hated everything. There was nothing in my life that I was stoked about. I had little happening aside from my friends. And that's where I was til somebody came into my life and said, "Hey! Come play drums for this band." It was like a reincarnation of a band called The Skullys. And I went there but I wasn't supposed to be playing drums. I was just fucking going to hang out, and I get there and I just got wicked stoned and ah! there's a drum kit! Now I hadn't sat behind a drum set in fuckin' years! And I had to play! I was pissed but I still played. I saw promise in two of the fuckin' members of that band. One was young Chris Duggan. I was like, that kid, even though he's a young cocky bastard, can play a mean bass. And I was like, Drew! That kid could be a Fat Bastard!
Drew: Ahh! I was waiting for that one!! [laughter all round]
Nancy: Well he's lost a lot of weight and he's looking good!
Adam: Yeah well, that leads to the next part I thought he was a fucking great guitar player.
Nancy: Hold on! Drew, weren't you playing with the Ducky Boys at that time?
Drew: I was just helping Mark Lind out; I wasn't really a member. I worked for Mark as merch man cause I grew up with those guys so I was with them at shows sometimes.
Nancy: Were the original guys still with them at this point?
Drew: At that time they had all left and they left Mark with a sizeable debt so I kind of just joined in to help him out since I knew the material.
Nancy: So you and Chris approached Adam...
Adam: I was tricked into going to watch one of their practices.
Chris: It wasn't even necessarily Drew. He had only been there for one or two practices.
Adam: So it was YOU!!? [Chris looking happily guilty]
Ron: This is an epic story! It's a tale!!
Adam: It IS a fuckin' tale dude! And I was Good friends with the Bruisers. I had played with Johnny Rioux and Scot Vierra a couple of times, like just jamming out, and we just ended up getting fuckin' drunk. And then Scotty, outta the fuckin' blue, just calls me and says, “Dude I'm Dyin' to play!” And I said, dude, get yourself down here at 11:45 in the morning and we'll hook it up. I tell these guys here and they said that's awesome. Scotty came down and it just fuckin' clicked right then and there. Then we were looking for singers cause none of us could sing for shit, I mean Sing!
Nancy: I've heard Chris sing. I think he's a good singer!
Ron: Give em your voice, your good voice.
Chris: You mean like opera? [does operatic doggy type howling]
Adam: What the fuck is that!!
Ron: That's him singing!
Adam: Yeah Great!! We were working shit out we had like three songs. One that was becoming "Another Beaten Soul".
Drew: And "Think You're Alone".
Chris: And "Caught in Time".
Adam: And that was it. So we did a demo with each of us singing a song. So it got into the hands of Ron Ragona.. Spring Heeled Jack [Ron's former band] broke up and I told Drew, “You know, I shouldn't call him.”
Drew: We were at the Deli House getting drunk off of Pabst.
Adam: [gesturing a toke] Smoking Pabst.
Drew: And I knew Pete, who I didn't even know played in a band. To me he was just the fat guy who worked at the Deli House, and Adam started to tell me about Ron and I didn't know he was so hot at the time so I said, "Ask Pete." And Pete was all about it and we called Ron and Ron was like, "Who the fuck are you?"
Ron: No, first you left a message and I could hardly understand it. It was like. "This is Drew and I'm with the mumumum Angelish,”. And I thought he was from Los Angeles. And he's going on, "We're down with TKO. We've got a deal going on in the works and blah blah." So I call him back and get hold of Drew and he goes, "Hey Ron, Pete tells us some pretty good things - I heard you Rock!" And I go, "I rock!" And he goes, "Come on down!"
Adam: So he came on down and ever since then, we've like fuckin' destroyed our emotions and whatever else. That started it all!
Nancy: And then Scotty took another road.
Adam: Yeah. In fact we just went to his wedding. Scotty left us, he fuckin' got married, that's the shit he was meant to do. You know we'd all love to settle down, I'm sure, but we've got some business to take care of.
Nancy: But he was going in a different direction, going to school, working in a bank...
Adam: Yeah, he wanted to make something of himself; he didn't want to be a scumbag for the rest of his life.
Nick: And that's where I come in! Instead of settling down.
Nancy: Instead of making something of your life!
Adam: At the same time, we had a fuckin' tour planned! We had played with The Living End and the very next day their management called our management and was like, “Hey! We wanna take you with us.” They hooked us up with two weeks with The Living End, two weeks with the Warped Tour. It was fuckin' unbelievable! It gave us a taste of some shit that I had never personally tasted before...meeting Thousands of people! Having all these awesome experiences as a band! But this broke just when Scotty V had just quit like two weeks before this shit - no notice - but ya know, it was really sad.
Nancy: But he didn't expect that you guys were gonna click like that and hit the road.
Adam: He was torn. He said he knew that this band was really gonna do something, he had this gut feeling. So he sat us down before the show and said that this was gonna be his last show and we went downstairs and totally rocked it and it was totally emotional.
Chris: It was your birthday party.
Adam: Yeah, on my fuckin' birthday. I got piss drunk. So Mikey P. came in and started playing with us. He had been in Spring Heeled Jack with Ron and he clicked beautifully, but he wasn't really into our shit.
Nick: He was more a jam dude.
Adam: He was a jam dude though he liked to rock. We got along awesome. Spring Heeled Jack are like family...Then these motherfuckers, they're like, man, this dude Nick from The Pilfers, Nick from the Pilfers...
Ron: We had been playing down in New York City.
Adam: The Rumblers - Roger Miret's car club.
Nick: Yeah. I lived right down there and I walked down and saw you guys. That's cause Dave was like, "Dude, you gotta check out Lost City Angels, they're lookin' for a guitar player, man!" Dave was there, "Man, like you gotta do it, you gotta do it!" And this was when the Pilfers had just broken up, and I was like kinda depressed and thinking that I had to get on with my life. And Dave was going, "You gotta get up to Boston, man." So I stopped by and we hung out had a drink. Then I started commuting up to Boston.
Adam: You know, honestly, we were like fuckin' stoked!! He took us to a new level of playing. We all buckled down. I started taking lessons again. Duggan and I started becoming a wall, a unit; we all focused somewhat. Nick really stepped it up to us and we were beyond stoked. He gets in there and starts wailing on songs he's heard maybe four times! He's putting these fucking Brutal solos on it! He's our motherfucker!
Nancy: I think everybody noticed that. Your musicianship really has been on a rising curve. You've gotten a much more polished sound. You were very good to begin with yet your level of playing has improved tremendously over the last couple of years.
Nick: What's cool for me is that I had been in a situation with these older guys, a pro band playing ska, and then these guys were just raw and heartfelt and honest, like honest music. I saw that with Ron and me cause we had toured a lot together. We were like bros; we saw the same things. We had a little bit more of a rock/punk kind of attitude. So I was like totally pumped to play with these guys cause they had the fuckin' passion, ya know.
Adam: We were fuckin' lunatics! And you fit Perfectly in with this!! [laughter]
Nancy: I've gotta say, you guys have come pretty far in a short span of time. Last year you played with The Living End, they Loved you and took you out! Got you on Warped. Last year Social Distortion Loved you, took you out. Stiff Little Fingers loved you, took you out, then Social D again, Stiff Little Fingers Again!
Adam: Ssshh, you're giving me anxieties!
Nancy: And you only got signed just a couple of weeks ago!
Adam: I know! We've hung with all these people, got to know all these people. Like Living End - they're our fuckin' family! Mike Ness and Social D - those guys have done so much for us, I'd personally fuckin' love to hear somebody talkin' shit about Social D in front of me!
Nancy: Well, you do hear a lot of people say Mike Ness has got some baaad
attitude...
Chris: He didn't have any attitude with us at all.
Adam: No! He'd come and kick it with us. He'd fuckin' bring down all their booze and food for us to take home. He couldn't be happier, watching all this good shit happening for us.
Drew: He'd watch us every night on tour.
Adam: Stoking us out! Watching us play, in front of thousands of kids beating the shit out of each other...it was all like surreal.
Nancy: That is amazing. I've glad to hear those people are wrong. Cause I had even heard that they were nasty to their own opening bands - but not with you guys. Anyhow, I think the way you've taken off is totally deserved cause you're just so great. You know, you see me and my daughter Dora at all your shows, never a week goes by that I don't play you on my radio show, even twice sometimes, though I'm not supposed to.
Ron: Yeah, we caught you listening to us the other day driving down the road over there!
Nancy: Yeah, hah! But still, there's been some vibes out there, some locals with the impression that maybe you've gotten too far too fast, that you haven't paid your dues...
Ron: I've been touring for Ten Years!! No shit!
Nancy: That's what I mean. Maybe Lost City Angels is new, but you guys aren't new. You've been out there hacking it for a long time.
Adam: Yeah, I've been out there fuckin' every day, working at a club, carrying fuckin' beer, workin' til all hours to pay my bills, so nobody's gonna personally tell me shit about this band being like, "Oohh you don't deserve it..." We bust our fuckin' asses!
Nancy: But I don't even mean like working your regular jobs, it's your music. Ron, you go back ten years; Drew, you've been at it for a long time!
Drew: I've been in and out of failing bands for years!
Nancy: And Chris! In that old Dropkicks/Ducky Boys split, they're thanking YOU!! And what were you, 15?!
Chris: 13!
Nancy: 13!! So you've all been doing this a Long time!
Adam: That's a good point. You know, from doing this Rumble thing we opened a lot of people's eyes. They were like, “You guys are great.” And we're like stoked but, you know, we've been here doin' this shit.
Nancy: Right. At the Rumble, people loving you...Like that totally drunk girl that was all about Ronny, she kept throwing herself on him - Amy and I so wanted to kill that girl!
Ron: I could hardly tell what was going on there! I was trying to figure it out!
Drew: He was getting a little freaked out!
Nancy: So does this happen when you're on the road too?
Adam: We have a fuckin' blast when we're on the road - let's leave it at that!
Nancy: I remember from your online journal last year, when you were out with Social D. There was something about a bathtub…somebody almost got married in Las Vegas?
Drew: Let's not get into the bathtub. [laughter]
Nick: And the wedding! Let's just say that it wasn't one of us - not a person in the band. [pointing to tour manager Evan]
Adam: We have a blast and we party, that's our deal - we party.
Nancy: So, is that what you're in it for?
Adam: Hell no! Not me - cause it'll fuckin' kill me! We're in it to have a good time. And I'm doing something I've Always wanted to do. And the fact that I'm doing something I've Always wanted to do, fuckin' makes me very happy.
Drew: Same here. I've always just wanted to be in a working band...be with guys who share the same type of music - we all get along and have a good time, and we're all gay with the other bands on tour! [lotsa laughter]
Nick: SShhhh!
Ron: That is So fucking gay!!! So gay!!! Uhh, that's Not the good times we were talking about. Duggan's the ringleader!
Nick: Now people will be going, "Not only are they New, but they're Gay too man!"
Nancy: Hey! Everybody already Knew you guys were gay! [laughter] That's all right!! Getting back...Chris, you had mentioned The Skullys. Is that what you envisioned for this, sort of a revival of The Skullys? Cause we loved The Skullys, but you guys are a bit more grown up, shall we say?
Chris: Much! There isn't even a comparison! This is a totally different style of music. That wasn't even about being in a band. That was just kids hanging around in the basement, having fun.
Nancy: But you sounded good! We still play the Skullys album a lot!
Adam: Duggan can take any shitty musician and turn him into gold. [laughter] I've been touched! It's gold!!
Nancy: So Chris, are you the music arranger?
Chris: No, no, we all do that; everyone has the same role.
Adam: Everybody sucks equally.
Nancy: Who's the principal songwriter?
Adam: There really isn't one - it's a collaboration. Even in terms of the lyrics. Ron writes a big chunk of them but, you know, you getting a fuckin' song and you jam into it - you jam into it and you smoke some opium...Like Ron came up with an awesome lyric for one of our new songs that I was blown away by!
Nancy: Let me ask you about some of your songs. Like "Another Beaten Soul" - who is that?
Adam: That's Drew.
Drew: Yeah, that's me. Duggan and I wrote that. It was one of the very first songs that we wrote.
Adam: Yeah, but that song is just you though. Look at his tats! [Drew has Lost Soul tattooed on his hands]
Drew: Originally I called it “Lost City Angels”. The song was about my personal feelings about myself and my friends. [guys are whimpering]
Nancy: And the dysfunctional family?
Drew: Yes. Let's just leave it at that.
Nancy: Well it's about a lot of us. But that's one reason your songs are so appealing; When you're playing, that's one song Everybody sings along to! That's why we go to punk shows, to blow it out!
Nick: No one here's a rich kid on a trust fund, you know!
Adam: We are some Poor, Hard working motherfuckers!
Nick: We're Pooor!! Money! Send me money!!
Adam: We're like "Label riches!! A thousand dollars for a recording!! Wooo!"
Nancy: Well, you're getting a lot of exposure now!
Adam: Yeah, but it can be hard. We've played shows in front of fuckin' two people.
Ron: Right here, in the living room!
Nancy: The song "first there's you, then there's me, with the booze it makes it three." What's the story there? [there follows a lot of laughing, mumbling, with Ron gesturing and blushing] Well, how about "Dreamgirl"? What's that about?
Ron: Well I was with my old band, playing in Vegas, with Nick's band and we went to a strip joint. And for some reason, I don't like going to strip joints because all I do is just sit there and...
Adam: Spend money for nothing!
Nick: You came up to me and said, "Let's get out of here."
Ron: "Let's leave the show and go to a party or something." Anyway, it's about a session with a woman or something. There's more to it, but I'm too stoned...
[Drew places a picture of a young man, Daniel Albert Edge, on the table]
Adam: That's Danny Edge, "Edge of 21". You know, I wish we didn't have to write the fuckin' song but it's something strong for all of us. That's probably the most emotional song we have. What happened is that he had never used any drugs, but then he did a drug and did too much of it and died. That song is about us, his friends and family, who went through his death. And then, about a week after that, Ron's aunt was murdered so Ron came across a second verse for it. It was macabre, basically.
Ron: It was just dealing with loss, you know, with the way that feels. It's like a strange feeling. Like my friend Dave who just passed away. He was my best friend and now whop! he's gone.
Nancy: You were in a band with him.
Ron: Yeah, we were in a band for eight years, and for him to die, what a horrible feeling. So that's what that song is about too. It's that feeling of loss. It gives you a voice for that feeling.
Adam: Nearly every time we've played that song anywhere, no matter where we are in the United States, kids have asked me about Danny Edge. Especially when we play Boston, we've got family and friends coming out and seeing that shit, which is cool.
Nancy: Well, I noticed a Rolling Stone over there, with a picture of Kurt Cobain on the cover. And at first I just rolled my eyes and thought, "Another Kurt Cobain cover! They so just do that to sell magazines." But it's occurred to me to ask which of you would most likely be the Kurt Cobain of your group?
Adam: Why'd you have to ask that??! What an awesome question! [guys rolling over laughing and moaning]
Nick: It's a plane crash!!
Adam: Only Duggan will survive! The rest of us are all gonna fuckin' die! That's what's gonna happen!
Nick: Com'on! When people say that in interviews - We'll be jinxed now!
Nancy: But Kurt was kinda nuts, he was depressed...You're all so healthy and well adjusted.
Adam: You are very wrong! As you notice, we're all here twitching and shaking back and forth as you ask that question, doctor!!
Nancy: Ok, well getting back to regular interview type stuff: You guys have been on some big tours. What would be your dream tour?
Adam: Can we resurrect the dead? Well, we've gotta have AFI in there somewhere.
Nick: AC/DC!
Adam: The original Motley Crue during the Girls, Girls! Girls! Year.
Drew: I'd love to tour with the Dead Boys and Joan Jett.
Adam: I love the new Distillers right now. I fuckin' love that album! “Sing Sing Death House” is off the hook! Those first two songs... Alkaline Trio's new shit is awesome!
Drew: Hall and Oates!
Adam: Hall and Oates! Hell ya!
Ron: They're coming back!!
Adam: Yeah, they're comin' back! Just wait! Wait'll people throw rocks at us!!
Ron: Bruce Springsteen.
Adam: Social Distortion.
Nancy: There you go. So you've all ready had one of your dream tours!
Adam: Fuck yeah! I'm goin' next week to Disneyland!
Nancy: It doesn't get much better than Social Distortion. They cover the punks, the county people, even people who only go to one show every three years...
Drew: I know me and the kids I grew up with Idolized Social Distortion and Mike Ness. He was the voice for the way a lot of the kids were feeling. To play even One show with him, for all of us, it was such an honor! But to be offered a whole Tour by those guys, you can't even imagine that something like that would happen to such a new band!
Nancy: It says a lot about you too, that you fit in with such different types of bands. Look at The Living End, they're so different from Social D.
Ron: I think they have the same mentality though. Even though their music is different, I think they approach it a lot the same and a lot like us. That might be why they like us.
Nancy: I think one reason people like you, though some people dis you for it too, is that you're somewhat more accessible, that you've got a bit more of a pop sound, that you're not real hard punk. Though it doesn't seem to be a matter of marketability, it's just that's it's music that more people can enjoy, while some other bands have a really small niche.
Nick: Everybody's gotta do what they do best and everybody in this band does something different. And that's what got me into this band. We don't play the same double time punk rock cause that's not what we do best. You gotta be honest with what you do.
Nancy: And what you do best is to make the music that you're making now. You don't do hard core or the heavy bass line garage stuff.
Ron: It's not like we couldn't do it either. We make a conscious effort to Not do it; we want to take it somewhere else.
Nancy: So you Enjoy the music you play now?
All: Yeah!
Drew: We love it.
Nancy: We've been waiting for this new album for a long time.
Adam: Well we're fuckin' broke! We owe so much fuckin' money! I make a lot of money and don't see any of it. We all spend every fuckin' penny on this band.
Nancy: Do you make any money on tour?
Drew: No, we lose money.
Ron: I lost $900 the first day on Warped! But that was playing poker with Big Mike!
Nancy: But now you're on Nitro. Are they gonna support you guys?
Adam: Nitro! They're our family! They're gonna do their thing and we're gonna do our thing and, together with those two things, we gonna fuckin' come to your town and fuck you in the asses. I mean, uh, we're gonna have sex with you ladies!
Nancy: It was a long time coming. There had been rumors that you guys were holding off, waiting for a better deal...
Ron: We just weren't rushing it. We were more concerned with getting the band together, with getting Better, writing better songs.
Drew: Yeah, we wanted to be around for a while; we didn't want to get pigeon holed or screwed like a lot of new bands end up getting. We all enjoy being in this band and playing so much, we didn't want to make any mistakes at all. We were extremely paranoid about it.
Nick: The thing is, this band sets goals. And every goal we've set so far has been met. It's amazing.
Ron: Not by easy means though.
Adam: We bust our butts every day! I can't believe we are all still walking! And Talking to each other! We have gone through So much, and it is awesome.
Nancy: Well, you've met every goal so far. What's the next goal?
Nick: To get this record out and fucking tour our Asses off.
Ron: To write the best kick ass songs.
Adam: To bring some new music to people.
Chris: To move out of my parents' house!
Adam: Bullshit!! It's never gonna happen!
Nancy: Do you envision this being your full time job, your career?
Adam: That's the next step. That's what we want to do. You know, we can't do anything else so why not?! What else am I gonna do? Be a bartender or a firefighter like my father? I don't think so. I'm walking a different way, as are these gentlemen.
Nancy: Well, we'd love to see that happen.
Adam: Well, if it doesn't happen, then everybody can just go fuck themselves.
Nancy: Can I ask you what you think of the Boston scene these days?
Nick: This place needs an all-ages scene again.
Adam: God! Does it ever!
Nick: We haven't played many all-ages shows here but on the last couple of tours, when we're out of town, it's been all all-ages and it's just great.
Adam: Kids go fuckin' Apeshit! Jumpin' off the stage with a pile of kids in front of you. You can fuckin' Jump on those kids, you can spit! Kids rule!
Nancy: Well, we'd better wrap it up now. How can people get hold of you guys?
Drew: Email. All our email addresses are on our website.
Nick: LostCityAngels.com
Adam: Love hate mail! Fucking love it! Actually, just send me hate mail. I don't want to read anything else.