As good a line-up as the initial announcement for ’77 Montreal fest was, the later addition of OFF! was a real treat for us. Aggressive, fast and dirty, they play Hardcore Punk exactly the way it’s meant to be. I guess it doesn’t hurt when your singer is arguably one of the originators of the sound! Original member of Black Flag and frontman for Circle Jerks, Keith Morris is still keeping it real after all these years. Needless to say we were very happy to speak to him, the day before the fest.
Make sure to check out ’77’s year round concert series, tying us up until next summer!
What have you been listening to the most likely?
As far as the music that I listen to, the modern music that I love, I happen to love a band from Toronto called FUCKED UP. I also happen to like… the guy that plays drums in Fucked Up has a band where he plays guitar and sings: they’re called CAREER SUICIDE.
Do you have any favorite era for Fucked up? They’ve changed pretty dramatically from their beginning to now.
No, no, no, no, no, no, because they put out so many records and they’ve gone through so many different musical situations that it’s all good. All of it. For modern bands, I went and saw DEER HUNTER the other night and they were brilliant. And if I’m going to prop up Deer Hunter, I’m going to prop up their Microcastle record, which is pretty flawless from start to finish. You have to listen to it and think of it as a singular musical piece, whatever movements are going on. I also happened to like a Pop band called The SHINS who put out an album called Shoots Too Narrow, on Sub Pop. I also happen to love a band from the UK called DUKE SPIRIT. Their first record is produced by a guy named Flood who has worked with NINE INCH NAILS and MY BLOODY VALENTINE and he’s probably worked with a lot of the loud Shoegazey bands, maybe RIDE or people like that. I also happen to like all of the stuff that I grew up listening to that nothing is going to knock any of this off of any perch.
I’m not listening to a lot of music right now though because the only thing that I’m concentrating on is that I have 50 songs that I have to vocalize on. Now granted, they’re 25 songs with two different drummers. Column A which is Dale Crover from the MELVINS, DALE CROVER BAND and REDD KROSS. And then we have column B, which is Mario Rubalcaba, who plays in EARTHLESS, ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT, HOT SNAKES. He plays with J. Mascis once a year at a festival over in Germany called Roadburn, where they all fly in and just play. They don’t even rehearse, they just get on stage and play. You just play along and will force things to go this direction, that direction. I’m sitting here in my living room, and I can rattle off probably 200 bands that I would place in my top 50.
What would you say is the record you’ve listened to most in your life?
That’s a difficult question. Because I started listening to music when I was five years old and we’d listen to music on the am radio. We were listening to bands like the SEEDS and the STANDELLS and then the WHO would come up with Happy jack and Can’t explain. Then we would hear Diana Ross and the SUPREMES and Smokey Robinson and the MIRACLES and we would hear OTIS REDDING and we would hear WILSON PICKETT and we would hear the MONKEYS and we would hear The MAMAS AND THE PAPAS and the list goes on and on. There would be BEATLES hits, there would be ROLLING STONES hits, there would be KINKS hits, there will be HOLLIES. I have some favorite bands that I’ve listened to just about all of my life. I got into a discussion with a friend, he said, “Keith, you can listen to all of this new modern music. You can discern which is cool, which is not. But none of it, no matter how great it is, is ever going to knock down all of those first albums. The first records that you owned.” All of your 7” inch records, all of the big singles off the radio. None of this new music is going to knock any of that stuff down.
Yeah, because it was all fresh and exciting.
Well, to this day, it’s still the BEATLES’ Sergeant Pepper’s, Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour, The White Album. The ROLLING STONES with all of their greatest hits, Exile On Main Street, Beggars Banquet, Let it bleed. Sticky Fingers. I can get heavy with DEEP PURPLE and Fireball and In Rock and Machine Head. I can get heavy with ALICE COOPER, the Alice Cooper band and Love it to Death and Killer and Billion Dollar Babies and School’s Out, etc etc.
From there, how did you start to gravite towards the Punk scene? Was it the Ramones? What was it that caught your attention?
It was PATTI SMITH. THE BUZZCOCKS. THE DAMNED. THE RAMONES. Well, here’s what happened. I listen to a lot of different music. When I go into a record store, I’m not going in there just for a specific genre of music. I can go in the record store and they’ll have records on display and something will pick my attention. I like that album cover and I want to find out what it is. Whether it be the SPARKS-Kimono My House or GOLDEN EARRING-Moon tan or UFO-Phenomenon. All sorts of different music. Do not peg me as Punk only, just because I play Punk Rock music. That’s what I do for a living. I would love to play other types of music but it’s just sometimes, that’s not provided for me.
Getting back on my thread of favorite bands: BLACK SABBATH, TELEVISION, SONIC YOUTH, LEON RUSSELL, JIMI HENDRIX, JOHN COLTRANE, TURBONEGRO, GUN CLUB. The MOVES, one of my favorite bands. You know, I love Punk Rock bands. I love BAD RELIGION. I love the AVENGERS. You know we’re playing this festival, in Montreal and those are some of the bands that are playing. Those are some of my favorite Punk Rock bands. VELVET UNDERGROUND, GUIDED BY VOICES, and on and on.
What are some of the most memorable shows that you’ve seen?
I would start with DAVID BOWIE and the Spiders from Mars in 1972 at the Santa Monica civic.
That must have been incredible!
Seventh row. Mick Ronson, Trevor Boulder, Woody Woodmansey. Then the STOOGES, Raw Power at the Whisky a Go Go. The KINKS for Muswell Hillbillies at the Hollywood Palladium. DEEP PURPLE, Machine Head tour at the Anaheim Convention. ALICE COOPER on the Killer tour at the Hollywood Palladium. MOTT THE HOOPLE I saw, like five times. Love them. I saw PAUL MCCARTNEY and WINGS at the Inglewood Forum. That was pretty badass. The RAMONES at the Whisky a Go Go with Blondie. That would be a mind altering, life changing event. Oh, the JESUS LIZARD and the WHO on the Quadrophenia tour and…
As a singer, what would be some of your favorite song lyrics? It can be a song or a line or maybe just the general work of a particular lyricist.
Right off the top of my head, this is a song that everybody’s going to scratch their head and go, what the fuck? Why would he name somebody like this and this particular song? Well, because it’s a gorgeous song. See, I’m in a Punk Rock Hardcore band. I live in Los Angeles. It’s gritty, it’s smoggy. I live near a very, very, very clogged up cluster fuck of up an intersection where there’s seven corners. There’s all sorts of shit, really a cluster fuck. So the energy is all messed up. One of the things that happen in life is, we find out that life is very unfair. It can be very ugly. It can just take you to places that you don’t want to go. All of a sudden, we’re bombarded with a thing called responsibility, which kind of sucks the life out of people. So we’re constantly surrounded in negativity. I mean, especially me, being in the band that I’m in, I don’t get to sing nice lyrics. A world so pretty and all of the little children should hold hands and lick snow cones and ice cream cones and suck on suckers and skipping in the park. It’s not like that. I listen to MOTORHEAD, which is brutal. I listen to JESUS LIZARD, which is brutal. I listen to the WIRES ON FIRE, which is brutal. I listen to the ICARUS LINE which is brutal. BLACK SABBATH is pretty brutal. URIAH HEEP is pretty brutal. DEEP PURPLE, pretty brutal. Yeah, it’s nice every now and then to hear a beautiful voice that cuts through all of the darkness. That would be JONI MITCHELL. She wrote a song called Both sides now.
That’s a great song.
Yeah, you know, just stuff like that. Sandy Denny who was in a band called FAIRPORT CONVENTION. Maddie Prior who was in an electric English Folk band called STEELEYE SPAN.
Do you have a hidden musical gem that you’d like to promote? Like a band or album that doesn’t receive enough recognition in your opinion. Or an overlooked song from a popular artist?
I don’t. What I would do is, because there are certain bands that are forbidden by Punk Rock, I will always promote the BEATLES. I will always promote the ROLLING STONES in their pop songs. Ruby Tuesday, Let’s spend the night together, even though that the lyric isn’t a pop lyric but it should be.
Well, it makes sense. I mean, Punk Rock has melodic aspect to it and so, it takes roots in all of it.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, hell fucking no. Not all of it. Some of it is just too fucking brutal. Do we consider the BUZZCOCKS to be a punk rock band? I don’t think so. I think the Buzzcocks were our modern BEATLES. Argue with me about that if you can, I don’t think you can. The RAMONES, they’re a Pop band because one of their major influences is the BEACH BOYS and it doesn’t get any more popular than the Beach Boys. For years and years and years and years and years and years and years, I hated the Beach Boys. Now, I love the Beach Boys because I’ve realized that all of those guys in the band… even Dennis Wilson, who was playing drums was vocalizing along with all of them. So now, all of a sudden, you have five guys harmonizing and that’s one of the most difficult things to do. To play an instrument and to sing at the same time and hit your notes is one of the most difficult things for anybody to do, that’s associated with music.
Do you have any any other example of that? Universally acclaimed artists that you perhaps missed out on or hated at first, but grew to love and they became one of your favorites?
Well, I love NEIL YOUNG. In the beginning, I didn’t love Neil Young. I mean, I loved what he did with the BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD and Mr. Soul. That’s a great songs. In fact, that’s kind of an early Punk Rock song. It’s got that kind of energy. That kind of vibe.
He’s always had the attitude. That’s for sure.
Yeah. But I hated that when I was growing up because I didn’t want to hear that; I wanted to hear GRAND FUNK. I wanted to hear some three piece power trio just clubbing me over the head. I wanted to hear some caveman rock. I wanted to hear the BOB SEGER SYSTEM, performing Ramblin’, gamblin’ man. 2+2=?.
Can you name say three songs that you would consider to be perfect and explain what makes them so special to you?
I’m not really going to be able to do that. But right off the top of my head, I’m going to cite the SEX PISTOLS, Did you no wrong, which is the B-side to God Save the Queen.
Oh yeah. That’s actually a very good example of a hidden gem type of thing. It’s not typical that people would go for that one, you know?
Yeah. That is Steve Jones copying Johnny Thunders, who was copying Keith Richards, who was copying Chuck Berry.
Is there any band that you’ve always wanted to see, but just never had the chance to catch them?
That’s easy. Right off the bat, The JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE, I would have loved to have seen them in London at the Marquee club back in 1966. When he first arrived in the UK, when he was being managed by Chas Chandler, who was the bass player from Eric Burdon and the ANIMALS. Yeah, I would go back to that if I had a time machine, I would also go back to two different lineups of the ROLLING STONES. I would go back to see one of the later periods of the Rolling Stones with Brian Jones. I would also want to see maybe one of the later shows of the Rolling Stones with Mick Taylor, I would love to see the YARDBIRDS. I would love to see BLIND FAITH. I would love to see ALICE COOPER on the Love it to Death tour.
What’s the first thing that strikes you when you listen to new music? Is there anything that makes or breaks a band for you?
Well, I worked for a record label, V2 Records, I had to go see a lot of live bands. In my first month of working at the record label, I saw the ARCTIC MONKEYS, who I did not like. I saw BLOCK PARTY, who I did not like. I would later see Vampire Weekend. These are all bands that became fairly popular, pretty big. I saw the VAMPIRE WEEKEND’s first performance in Los Angeles. My general rule when you go see a band, one of the things you want to do is gauge the scenario by the amount of people that are there and the energy of the people that are there. If it’s a negative energy well, fuck that. Who needs to stick around and be part of some kind of bullshit thing. But normally, when it comes to the band playing, you give them three to four songs. If they’re not rocking it up, and they’re not fucking movin and shakin and getting shit done by the third or fourth song, it’s time to go. I witnessed Arctic Monkeys, and Block Party with my boss. My boss was kind of digging it. He was mentally taking notes, saying “Yeah, we need to try to sign these guys.” And I would step outside of the venue and just hang out with whoever was out front. I don’t need to see anymore, I don’t need to hear anymore, I’ve already made up my mind. Now, maybe that’s a bit rushed but at the same time, it’s a rule that I adhere to. If you’re not happening within three or four songs, you’re probably not going to be happening.
So it’s all about the vibe for you?
I could be in a room where everybody is just standing there, like a clump on a fucking log with their arms folded. But if the music is interesting, and it’s colorful, and it’s stimulating, then that’s a whole different thing. You know, it could be some highly intellectual band that’s too smart to fucking just rock out, you know? There’s plenty of bands that are like that, like “well, we’re too good to be here but this is what we do.” And maybe it’s interesting. Maybe it’s fucking stupid and dumb for a bunch of intellectuals. I don’t know. But like I said, my rule is three or four songs, maybe a fifth song if the fourth song is starting to happen. Stick around for a fifth or sixth song.
Is there anything specific that makes or breaks the band though? Say, would you be able to get past an average singer or a bad drummer or anything like that? Something you just cannot overlook?
Ultimately, it boils down to the drummer. If you’re in a band and your drummer is fucking horrible, it doesn’t matter how great the other players are. It doesn’t matter how awesome the lead vocalist is. Your drummer is like, if you’re building a house, you got to have a concrete foundation. You got to have a solid foundation. Otherwise, you’re spinning your wheels. And you could be building a fucking Empire State Building on a fucking landfill or a pit of quicksand. So don’t be the drummer playing in a fucking pit of quicksand. Get the fuck out.
No Comments