One of the most recognizable characters of the Desert Rock scene, Nick Oliveri has played in far too many projects to list here. Mostly known as an original member of cult bands Kyuss and Queens Of The Stone Age, his name appears on classic albums such as Blues For The Red Sun and Rated R. A punk rocker at heart, high octane Rock is the trademark of most of his projects, from the Dwarves, to Svetlanas, to Bloodclot, to B’last, etc, etc. Aside from all of this, his homebase remains his very own band, Mondo Generator, where he handles bass and vocal duties.
Mondo Generator’s new album, Fuck It, is available now on Heavy Psych Sounds Records, along with recently released “lost” album Shooters Bible and upcoming represses of classic records Cocaine Rodeo and Dead Planet.
For the first time ever on TTL, we present the audio recording of the interview. Nick recorded it all on his own and we loved the recording so much that we couldn’t keep it for ourselves. Enjoy!
Name five songs that you consider “perfect songs” and explain why or what they mean to you.
Well, what’s perfect to me is not always perfect for others but I’m going to start. I’m gonna say ROLLINS BAND off the Life Time record, Gun In Mouth Blues. What an amazing song. It really takes you on a journey and it has really peaks and valleys and I think he really captures with his singing voice and his lyrics, how somebody would actually be feeling if they wanted to take their own life. The power of the rhythm section and the guitar player. The rhythm section, Andrew Weiss and Sim Cain, I mean, wow. Being a bass player, I really got something out of this band, more than just this song. Chris Haskett on guitar. I mean, just a really amazing band Rollins put together after BLACK FLAG and so I’m gonna go ahead and say that Gun In Mouth Blues, if you really listen, it’s pretty intense. Breaks it down really low and then brings it back up really powerful when it kicks in. He goes through this thing where he’s actually going to pull the trigger and he pulls the trigger and then bam! Music just comes in, ripping and screaming. It’s a pretty powerful track. If you don’t know it, you should check it out.
I’m gonna go ahead and say for number two MOTÖRHEAD. There’s so many Motörhead songs I love and obviously I’m a huge fan. The DAMNED, The RAMONES, I mean the list goes on, I can name songs that are my favorites for days and days and days. I’m gonna go ahead and say Iron Horse/Born To Lose and also Dust And Glass which is on the Aftershock record, which is a later record but what an amazing beautiful song and dark and beautiful and bluesy as well. Fuckin’ amazing. It’s got some cool guitars on it, Phil Campbell, and just an amazing track and you can hear the urgency in Lemmy’s voice. He just had his first trauma in the hospital and it was the first record I think he did after and you can hear it in his voice. He’d started to get old on us and it’s starting to fade out and I really feel the power behind it from that, just knowing like “wow, one of my favorite heroes is dying but we’re going to see and hear him die.” You know, it’s pretty sad. But he still made great records all the way to the end and they still made one more records after that one so he made two records after he got sick. Unbelievable, you know, made ’em all the way to the very end. Amazing. Anyways, Dust And Glass, amazing track.
SUBHUMANS, number three. I’ve got two Subhumans tracks again, I couldn’t choose which one I wanted most. You got these weird time signatures on a song called Ex-Teenage Rebel, which is on Worlds Apart, and of course, Wake Up Screaming which is on From The Cradle To The Grave. You know what, I’m gonna take that one away, I’m gonna say one Subhumans track, the song From The Cradle To The Grave, side B of the album and it’s a 20 minute song, like 18 minutes and something seconds. Instead of getting shorter songs and being Punk Rock, they would jam more and fill up a whole side with a track. Dick’s lyrics in this song go through a person’s life, their whole life from birth, to all the traumas in the middle, and then till death and it’s such an amazing track. If you read the lyrics and listen to him while he’s singing along and hear all the different parts they actually put together to make it happen and then bring back the parts towards the end where it starts over again, it’s like, wow, what an amazing track. What an amazing band and to think they did it all themselves is really, really…they’re great. They’re great. They DIY’d it all the way, they put out their own records. I mean, they’re just phenomenal. Phenomenal rock star band, as far as I’m concerned, which they wouldn’t call themselves rock stars, but to me, those guys are stars, in the true sense of like, that guy’s a fucking star, man. Wow, that guy can do stuff. He’s got some genius behind.
Of course, with only five tracks here, I am leaving out like JAMES BROWN, I’m leaving out…you know, there’s so many different artists that I could go on and on about so many. I’m gonna say SIMON STOKES in the number four position Down For Death, Simon Stokes and the Heathen angels. This is a guy who started his career in the late 60’s, or something like that. He’s a friend of mine, and he’s 84 years old, and he’s a badass motherfucker. He still lives in Palm Desert, California. If you don’t know his stuff, you should check it out. He’s a cult classic hero and he’s still alive somehow and he’s just a great, great fellow. It’s funny, I toured with him, he can’t always remember stuff sometimes anymore because he’s 84 years old but we toured around in a band called Sun Trash, one time, some years ago, and the last time I saw him, he goes, “Hey, did we cap beers and like travel around playing music together?” I was like, fuck yeah, we did! And he goes, “yeah, I remember that too.” He smiled and it made me feel really good. He can’t remember a lot of stuff anymore but he’s reading me up and down, trying to do put two and two together like, “I know this guy really well. I know him” and I was like, yeah, what’s up? I said, “I’ll never forget that” and he goes, “Me too. Me too.” So I hope old Simon’s doing good but the song Down For Death is a later track of his. I mean, he’s got stuff in the early 70’s with The Nighthawks and the Incredible Simon Stokes and The Black Whip Thrill Band, which is the very first cover to ever be banned in the United States. He had that cover. He’s a badass and he’s an underground classic cult hero that people don’t know about but Simon Stokes, really great. Down For Death, he goes to a situation where he tells the story of him and his wife and kids, where he did a deal that gone bad and they came to kill his wife. Raped her and they killed the two kids and now he’s gonna get his revenge. He’s waiting for ’em inside the house and he’s gonna chop their heads with an axe and he’s got all his weapons ready for them. He goes through the whole thing with like five different guys he has to fight and the last two standing, it’s him and one guy and it gets to the very end and he’s like, “Alright, let’s get it over with. On the count of three…” It’s building up and building up and he goes “One…”, it keeps on building and building, like 30-40 seconds and he goes “Two…” and the last one is a big loud “Threeeee!” and they shoot each other and the track ends. It’s like, wow! Down For Death, Simon Stokes and The Heathen Angels. Check it out.
We’re gonna go number five now and you know what, I’m gonna make this one easy on myself because this is a standard that we all love and appreciate, BLACK SABBATH, I think Children Of The Grave, just such a good song. I feel like we are children of the grave at this point. They’re singing about war and we’re kind of out at war ourselves and COVID-19 and shit. We’re at a different kind of war now. I really get something out of that song and I really appreciate it. Geezer Butler’s bass playing is obviously one of my favorites of all time and I play bass because of him. Definitely a hero of mine and without Lemmy and Geezer Butler, I mean, I wouldn’t play bass for sure.
I’m going to do number six, okay, I’m sorry, but I have to do number six. The RAMONES, I’m just gonna have to say She’s The One, off of Road To Ruin. I know that’s not the original four guys with Tommy on drums, it has Marky on drums, Mark Bell from RICHARD HELL AND THE VOIDOIDS, but She’s The One, I mean, what a great pop song, yet it’s moving fast, Ramones-style. It’s got hooks, it’s got a cool bass line and it has something moving around, Dee Dee normally just wrote great songs, it wasn’t like, “check out my bass playing”, you know? He was a great bass player and the fact that he could write a song on the spot right now, when he was alive… like “Hey, we need a song for this movie” and bam! He could write it, right then and there and that’s not easy to do and he did that. He wrote songs for that band after he was out of the band. For like the last eight years of that band, he’d write songs for their records. You look at their records and the best ones on those records were Joey’s and his, all the way to the very end. Dee Dee was a star, you know? He was great. I first heard She’s The One on Rock And Roll High School, the movie. They play it when they play at the Roxy, the live footage is at the Roxy in Hollywood and they play that song. I just fucking love that song, so good. “Yeah, Yeah, she’s the one”… I’ve even ripped off the lyrics…”When I see her on the street. You know she makes my life complete”, I did “Little girl walking down the street” for Quick And The Pointless (Queens Of The Stone Age), I don’t know if you know the song but I kind of stole those lyrics from that! *Haha*
Which music genre do you listen to the most? Name your five favorite albums in that genre.
I like to listen to all different styles of music. I like everything from Country bands like WEEN to BUTTHOLE SURFERS to Hardcore, you know Italian Hardcore bands and RAW POWER to the New York Hardcore…the BAD BRAINS, the Roar cassette era, I mean, come on, that’s untouchable stuff and BLACK FLAG Rise Above, that Damaged record’s pretty powerful to say the least. I mean, there’s so many great bands…BLACK SABBATH. Birmingham. GBH, Black Sabbath and JUDAS PRIEST come from the same town! There’s some great bands around the world…EXPLOITED from Scotland. There’s some powerful music out there that I still get the same thing from when I hear it, than what I did when I was a kid. Some bands you put on and it’s like, I wonder why I liked this so much when I was a kid, but some stuff we go yep, still moves me, still gets the angst going, still gets me all “Something’s gonna happen! Something’s gonna happened!” The first SUICIDAL TENDENCIES record does that to me still, from when I was a kid, I remember first hearing and go “Holy shit!” Every songs written in an anthem sort of way, where it has a beginning intro piece that kind of builds up, builds up and than stops and they click in and go into the part, and it’s like, you know something’s gonna happen, someone’s gonna get hit in the face or something. It’s crazy shit. So THAT’s rad. CRO-MAGS, Age of Quarrel. That’s a genre in itself, Bad Brains, Cro-Mags and the New York Hardcore scene. The LA scene in the early 80’s, it’s amazing stuff.
I’m not a real 60’s kind of guy. I like stuff that’s old, in the 60’s and 70’s and stuff. I like 50’s Doo-Wop stuff a lot. I just prefer to listen to Punk Rock, heavy Doom, stuff that isn’t all that commercially successful. I like stuff that I feel like this is all mine. Nobody really knows too much about this, but they should. That’s the kind of stuff I listen to. I don’t know if that gets to all the genres that I really, really like but the five favorite records I’m gonna choose are Cro-Mags Age Of Quarrel, Bad Brains Roar cassette…as a whole album, uh? Oh boy, here we go…Well, you know, Black Sabbath’s first record…the front cover to the songs on it, the forbidden notes of the song Black Sabbath where it goes E to A-sharp or B-flat, whatever you want to call it. That was the forbidden notes in the old orchestra days, like Beethoven days and Mozart days and shit. Those were the evil forbidden notes you weren’t allowed to do. So they do that in the first song with the inverted cross in the gatefold. Come on, that’s pretty powerful in itself.
Number four, THE INCREDIBLE SIMON STOKES AND THE BLACK WHIP THROW BAND. Yeah, that record’s rad. Then I’m going to say number five is…man, I know I’m gonna forget some stuff because I’m combing my brain right now and I’m forgetting a lot of stuff that I love…you know, MOTÖRHEAD has a live record and I don’t normally listen to live records but man is that No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith a powerful record. It’s one record, not a double disc, not a double vinyl, where you got to listen to too much live stuff. That record gets to the point. Side one opens up with Ace Of Spade, come on! Let’s open with the hit we have right now in a live record. Normally, you’d wait till the end to pop that in there but nope, not them, killed it. Just killed it. Great record. Also, the White Line Fever record, on white vinyl, which is the original band and a pretty great record.
Who are you five favorite rappers of all time?
Maybe I’ll mix ’em up ’cause I don’t know if I have five rappers that I love the most but I know ICE CUBE was fucking great. I don’t know what he’s doing now, he’s acting and stuff. Man, that dude. I think he wrote Eazy E’s fucking rhymes too because Eazy E was the money guy, you know? But yeah, Ice Cube wow. SNOOP DOGG, come on! Snoop! Who doesn’t like Snoop, come on! *Haha* I don’t even smoke weed anymore but if Snoop was here burning one, I’d be “lemme hit that.” *Haha*
I like CYPRESS HILL. Cypress Hill’s cool. Kyuss Lives did a festival with Cypress Hill, they were great. I Actually roofed the house next to B-Real’s, when their first record was jumping out and I was playing in the Dwarves. My grandpa’s roofing with his company in Venice, California and we’re in Culver City doing a job at this lady’s house, which is like a hoarder. I fell through the roof at one point and my foot hit a stack of something in the garage. She kept stuff to the ceiling basically, you could see it in your windows inside the house as well, not just the garage. Hoarder, couldn’t throw anything away I guess. Anyway, we’re there, it’s hot as hell outside, Los Angeles, California, Culver City and I noticed the guy next door’s house, he’s got the curtains all open and he’s got all these Platinum records, gold records hanging on the walls, but I can’t see who they are from where I’m at. This guy pulls up in this Land Rover thing or whatever that they had in their videos at the time and my grandpa was a pretty outgoing guy. He be like, “Hey, you got a band?” Roofer type, you know? We could see in their backyard they had bones that were made into marijuana plants, like stage props and had the garage wide open. Nobody was there, the garage was wide open with all this P.A. gear in there and they weren’t worried about anybody stealing shit. He came in and came in the backyard and he had a bottle of Jack Daniels with his buddy. They were burning weed and he had some homemade lemonade he made to make Lynchburg lemonades with whiskey and lemonade, which sounds delicious right now even. You get your vitamin C and get your head right. So he’s back there and my grandpa’s like “Oh, hey, you got a band?” He goes, “Yeah!” “What do you call it?” He goes “Cypress Hill” I was like, what!? And he goes to me, “what’s your name of your band boy?” I went “The Dwarves. Do you know the Dwarves?” and the guy said no, and of course, my grandfather laughed because he liked to be “you can’t make it in music. You got to get on a roof seven days a week…” He died, he fuckin’ worked himself to death. Anyways, I proved him wrong. So he laughs, of course you don’t know his band. *Haha* But B-Real took upon himself like, “Are you guys thirsty? It’s hot outside, do you want some lemonade?” He went inside his house and made homemade lemonade. It was delicious. Put it on ice, with the pitcher and cups and I mean, just really stoked us out. Super nice guy. I’ll never forget that for him. Not only is he a great rapper, he’s a great person. Actually met him firsthand and wow, what a gem of a fella. That’s a stand up guy right there. I could sit here and drink my ice cold lemonade and Jack Daniels in front of you but I’m gonna offer you guys something to drink because I’m a gentleman and I thought that was cool and I’ll never forget that.
That was three rappers over there. Ice Cube was probably my favorite of all time. Snoop Dogg. I think EMIMEM. Being a white dude in a game that’s not white boys and kicking ass like he does, you gotta hand it to you, dude, you’re pretty fucking great. Honestly, I’m not a huge Rap guy but BEASTIE BOYS, I think they’re great too. I can’t not leave out one of the greats like Beastie Boys, I think what they did was totally different. They started out a Hardcore band with the Polly Wog Stew record, which I have, and it’s totally Hardcore. Fast and Furious, Hardcore music. They went Rap, kept the band name, fucking great. And they play their own instruments. When they came back to start playing their own instruments with the Rap thing instead of just sampling. Let’s play instruments and just loop ’em, you know what I mean? We’ll rap over that. Pretty great. I also liked OUTKAST a lot, they were super rad. Andre 3000 and Big Boi.
Who are your favorites lead guitar players of all time?
Tony Iommi, hello? God, could that guy rip. One of the best solos of all time. Over and Over, on the Mob Rules record, the last song on the record. He did two solos in there. You could tell that Ozzy had Randy Rhoads at the time so Tony kinda has to prove himself at this point and he does. He’s pulling out tricks you never heard him do before. But if you think about it, he invented a style of music. Detuning it, because his fingers are leather tips. Just to think about that, he has three leather tips on his fingers ’cause he cut them off in a machine shop and he still plays the way he does. It’s like, wow, dude! Amazing.
Fast Eddie Clark from MOTÖRHEAD, what an interesting player because Lemmy’s playing lead almost, and he’s kind of holding it down, even though he was doing leads. His leads are very interesting in the way he approaches them. Listen to some of those Motörhead records, their early ones, it’s like, what the hell’s he doing?” It’s fuckin’ great and it’s just different. It’s different, which makes it great.
There’s a lot of great guitar players out there. Best rhythm player of all time? That’s easy. Keith Richards. Not only does he play the best rhythm guitar, he knows where to leave space and silence in there too. Malcolm Young is another rhythm player that’s one of the best of all time. He knew when to shut up and stay out of it to let the lead take the place and send this kid brother out there to go crazy and fucking kill it. He was smart. He was talented, smart individual and a great rhythm player, one of the best of all time. Same to Keith Richards with the silence in between knowing when to put silence and space in between the parts is what makes them the best.
I’m gonna slip a bassist in there. I think THIN LIZZY is an underrated thing. Phil Lynott was an amazing songwriter. He played these opposing notes on bass AND sing these beautiful melodies over the top of them with these opposing notes behind it, like “What are you doing dude!” Sad that he been gone for years now, 30 years he’s been dead and he died really young, I think 36 or something like that. 36? That’s like the prime of your life dude, your 30’s are amazing.
Now we’re going to get over to drummers. Dave Grohl is a badass motherfucker. I know this firsthand because I played in a band with him. He’s not always my favorite songwriter but it’s undeniable he can write a song that is way better than a song I can write. I mean, it appeals to the masses and he’s winning Grammys and killing it. I think he’s going for that and he knows he can. I’m not. I’m writing things for different reason but I’m not trying to compete with him. He’s freaking amazing. But his drumming? Holy cow! Perfect every time. Just amazing. And a good fellow as well, he’s a true star. If everybody who is doing well in their field, a star like that, was like him, we’d have a fucking great entertainment business and a great world. Anyways, there’s a lot of good drummers out there. Earl from BAD BRAINS, an amazing drummer. Bill Stevenson from the DESCENDENTS, he was in BLACK FLAG as well. He’s an amazing drummer I think, really precise and he got the surf element going on for him too. Just really interesting and cool and I like it.
For producers, we got a drummer too, Thee Slayer Hippy from POISON IDEA. He produced the new Mondo Generator record called Fuck It and it’s kick ass, I really like it. He’s one of my favorite producers so we had him do this record and Chris Goss is one of my favorite producers too. He produced all the MASTERS OF REALITY records and also the Kyuss records and QOTSA’ Rated R as well. Great guy and a very interesting, cool slant on music and in helping a band find their way through something when they can’t find the sound they want. He’s got a way of approaching things that make you trust him and know that he’s not going to stray in some stupid direction.
Best vocalist, I’d say Chris Goss is one of the best and MARK LANEGAN is one of the best, these guys can tear it up. LITTLE RICHARD was one of the best. Gerry Roslie from the SONICS is one of the best. Obviously, I like Little Richard because I scream vocals as well sometimes and he was the original screamer, no pun intended. Gerry Roslie from the Sonics they kind of lifted a lot of stuff from Little Richard, may he rest in peace, he’s gone now. Mark Lanegan, wow, what a star. That guy’s voice is perfect. I mean, he did some damage to it but it was for the better when it comes to his music. That guy’s got some great vocals. I just love his darkness approach to everything and his growl and everything. It’s just so perfect and good. Chris Goss is like an opera singer. He can hit highs that like, you can’t do. So he can just come in and do it and then you have to find a way to do that live!
What’s the album you’ve listened to the most in your life? Do you still listen to it?
For some reason, I listen all the time to IGGY POP’s New Values record. I don’t know why, I just like it a lot. I’m always listening to that stupid record! *Haha* Not stupid, I love it. I’m a big Iggy Pop fan. I like The STOOGES a lot too, I think, Fun House is an amazing record and I still listen to both of those religiously and I just can’t stop listening to them. If I get in the car, I put it on. If I’m at home, I put it on. James Williams, he produced that New Values record and I think those two really worked good together. He’s on the Raw Power record as well and the Kill City record.
What are some of your favorite song lyrics?
There’s lots of lyrics that move me still and sometimes I don’t even want to know if I have the lyrics wrong cuz it’ll ruin a song for me sometimes. I get somebody to say like, “You’re singing that wrong” and I’m like, “No, I’m not. It’s what I get out of it.” “No, this is what the lyrics are.” And now the song takes a total new meaning to me. It doesn’t mean the same thing and it’s a bummer, I don’t need to know the real lyrics. If I’m getting something out of a song so much, don’t correct me on it. I want to feel that song and I’m getting some from it, you know?
Anyways, there’s a lot of songs I could go on and on about that have that kind of lyrical content that’s so important to me, that I really feel what I’m going through. What the world is going through and foresighting what the world…people singing lyrics that are like, it ain’t happened yet, but it’s going to and it does happen. You’re like, “Fuuuck. Oh, I knew it.” I like stuff like that. I’m not a conspiracy theorists, but I’m not not one either. I always question the powers that be so I like music that does that too. I’m not political in my songs. I did a couple of political songs in the last couple years lyrically and there were my first ones really because I was trying to escape from all that reality shit but reality’s so fucked now it’s like, how do you escape fucking that? It fuels everything so I have a couple of songs like that now.
So lyrically, I like a lot of JOHNNY CASH stuff. He didn’t write a lot of his stuff, but he delivered it and the way he delivered it makes it his. The Mercy Seat, which is a NICK CAVE song, I think those are great lyrics. Cocaine Blues, Boy Named Sue…great, great, great lyrics. it’s fantastic stuff.
There’s a lot of different artists that I really can appreciate their approach in lyrics. GG ALLIN, for instance, he didn’t give a fuck, he was trying to destroy everything in himself and everyone in the path and he’s singing about it. You knew what you’re getting, which I think takes a lot of balls to say the things he said and to live the way he lived and to be who he was on stage. “Dude, you’re out of your fucking mind!” That’s pretty impressive. It could be depressing for some people but it’s impressive to some, you know?
I’m kind of interested in serial killers and I’m interested in people like GG Allin as far as an artist is concerned. He was pretty much a serial killer in music. The only thing you haven’t heard him doing while he was alive was like, “Oh, every town he comes through, he’d killed somebody. They just caught him for it and he’s dead.” That’d be the one thing you’d hear like, “Whoa, I knew it!” *Haha* Anyways, I’m crazy. I think some of the things he would say in his lyrics were like, “Holy shit, did he say that?” And yes, he did. He expressed his freedom of speech and he expressed his right to be who he was and didn’t care people liked him. He wasn’t censoring himself and there’s something to say for that. That’s more what I’m getting to about GG Allin and people like that, he didn’t censor what he was saying. He wasn’t concerned about if it was going to hurt somebody’s feelings. I think there’s something to say for Rock And Roll like that. That’s true Rock And Roll. It’s supposed to be dangerous and element of crime in there somehow, like “Wow, anything could happen at the show man! I better keep my eyes open.” Somebody can go flying into the air off the stage and kick me in the head and hurt me and if I don’t keep my eyes open and stay off my cell phone, you know what I mean? So be part of the show. Don’t film it, get in it. I don’t know how it’s gonna be now with social distancing, it’s gonna be lame. Clubs that have small bands like my band plays, they’ll be lucky to get their doors open after all this. Anyways, life is hard, what are we gonna do? It sucks.
Do you have an absolute all time favorite band or musical artist? What makes them so special to you?
I don’t really have an all time like, “I wish I was that guy” but I do like The RAMONES an awful lot. I mean, it was my musical teacher because I didn’t take lessons. I would play It’s Alive, which is the first three records live and it’s nonstop, 1-2-3-4 and they go to the next song. I first learned how to play guitar and I was like 11. I had a little guitar, a Kramer or something like that and I’d scratch the needle back, scratch the needle back, scratch the needle back, trying to play along with these songs so I figured out how to do barre chord on my own. I can do this. The Ramones taught me how to play guitar so I gotta say they’re my favorite. They’re the reason why I play music now.
For bass, it was BLACK SABBATH because the one lesson I did take, the guy wrote the diagram of the fretboard on a piece of paper and I studied it all the time. E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp. Then I realized when I was playing bass, there’s a box. An octave note, and you can do a fill in there. That’s what Geezer’s doing so it all made sense to me. So my all time favorite musical artists are The Ramones because I could figure out what they’re doing and it’s high octane, 50’s Doo Wop played fast. There’s a formula to Rock And Roll songwriting, E to C sharp to A to B kind of thing. There’s a formula to how it starts with a verse, a chorus, a verse, chorus, bridge, chorus out. That’s a Rock And Roll formula of songwriting arrangement and there’s a chord pattern too that old 50’s Doo Wop music follows so I figured that one out. I have to say artists like that are amazing. They weren’t the best players individually, but could write a song that was great and I can’t touch. Black Sabbath is another great one, Geezer Butler on bass. For obvious reasons, the first six records…I have to say eight records up to Never Say Die, there’s some good stuff on it. Johnny Blade is a good song.
What are your 10 favorite albums of all time?
Holy cow. Well this one kind of goes back to the five favorite records I did so I’m gonna do five more.
Number six, ROLLINS BAND Life Time. That record is kick ass. I mean, talk about powerful, just the last note of the last song on side B, it ends and he just screams without any music, whoooa! From start to finish, the album is as powerful as you can imagine. It’s really great.
Number seven…wow…right now, I’m in the garage and my studio out here but if I went inside the house with all my records, I’d be like, “Oh my god. Yeah, that one!” I mean, I like The STOOGES’ first record, I like Funhouse…Oh The DAMNED, Machine Gun Etiquette, great record. Captain Sensible moves from bass guitar and it’s just great. You have Algy Ward on bass from the SAINTS, from Australia, an early ’77 punk band, they’re just great. That record’s amazing. The Black Album is amazing too. They weren’t afraid to try and venture away from the Punk Rock thing and do some real intelligent music and The Damned are amazing.
That’s two more records more so that brings us to number nine and I’m gonna say MISFITS, Earth A.D.. Different, powerful, amazing. Then there’s another sci-fi horror movie artists that I love to death, ROKY ERICKSON AND THE ALIENS, The Evil One record or Five Symbols whatever they released it as first. I think it was released as Five Symbols in the UK and then they released it as The Evil One in America. Amazing record. Amazing, amazing, amazing. So that’s ten. The reason why I like those guys so much is their sci-fi approach in their songs, same with the Misfits. This is like the Punk Rock version of Roky. I don’t know who came first, I think they were about the same time, as far as the horror movie element, sci-fi element went, because Roky wasn’t doing that for a long time when he was locked up. He came out of the funny farm and that’s when he started doing that stuff but Misfits had just been born around the ’77 era. So I’m just saying great stuff. I turned Into A Martian. I Walked To The Zombie by Roky Erickson. Astro Zombies by Misfits. Stand For The Fire Demon by Roky Erickson. Just amazing stuff. Really interesting to get inside somebody’s mind like that and what fuels them to write songs. I’m a songwriter too -I like to fancy myself that. I have to think that I am one! *Haha*
WEEN The Mollusk. What an amazing record! When we were making Rated R, I must have listened to The Mollusk every single day. That song Buckingham Green, every morning before I went into the studio, I’d listened to that record. Every single morning. It inspired me to write and to record and to do some of the best work that I’ve been part of, so that’s something to say for that. Ween, great band. MOISTBOYZ too!
Do remember the first time music had an impact on you?
Yes. I was a 70’s kid and on the radio then was Disco and stuff so that was my first experience listening to music. The first records I bought as small, small child, before I bought KISS records and all that cool stuff, I bought VILLAGE PEOPLE and Rapper’s Delight (THE SUGAR HILL GANG). That was really cool, I still like that. I’ll put on a Village People track every now and then, it’s good, it’s fun, you’re partying and people are over the house. KC AND THE SUNSHINE band and shit like that. I grew up listening to that shit, I was a child. I figured my parents were cool to me ’cause they didn’t tell me that’s stupid. Like The BACKSTREET BOYS, The Backstreet Boys suck, let’s be honest but if it gets a kid into the arts, I ain’t going to tell a small child “That’s stupid! Don’t listen to that, that stuff’s lame!” It might turn them off to music altogether so I would never say that to a child. You like that music? That’s cool man. Keep listening because your musical tastes will change and eventually you’ll be buying the cool records. At the time, for me, Kiss records were a big step. Different from Rapper’s Delight and Village People and Kool AND THE GANG and shit. So it was a good thing my parents didn’t turned me off to the arts, if you will.
So that was the first time music got an impact on me and then Kiss really just took it to another level of the game and I got into Rock And Roll. Then The RAMONES and AC/DC. AC/DC was the soundtrack to everything I did first really. At a party, smoking weed for the first time and Highway To Hell was on really loud. Or first time I think I had sex. I don’t know if it even happened but I mean, I finished. *Haha* It was really exciting, I didn’t know quite what was going on and then it was over. *Haha*
But I think Back In Black must have been playing at the time at the party, I was in a room with some gal. Anyways, bands like that really shaped me into who I am today. The element of danger, and Rock And Roll and good times. I love it. I’m all about Rock And Roll and everything that it stands for. To me, it’s danger, it’s unprotected sex, it’s all the things that are bad today. But that’s what Rock And Roll is. It’s so uncensored and it’s not safe. It’s not fun and it’s gonna piss somebody off, it’s going to be offensive and I like that about it. I’ve been trying my whole life to offend people so now when somebody censors me when I say something on Facebook, I’m just going like, “What? You’re kidding me?” God. I just sang a song about it. Holy crap.
Stuff that I remember listening to all the time back then and still to this day: *singing* “Rock ‘N’ Roll damnation.” Great, great track. Bon Scott! And Brian Johnson great too. I went and saw them on that Black Ice tour and I cried, I passed out, I got back up, I partied, I was singing along, it was just amazing! It was so good. I went through all the different memories of a child, the good and bad times, AC/DC got me through it. Pretty crazy. I mean, I have Let There be Rock, I have Powerage, I have High Voltage, I have the live record If You Want Blood, You Got It. This is all on my iTunes, on my phone. I have Highway To Hell, I have Back In Black and Those About To Rock. I have all those records in my playlist, on my phone right now. ‘Cause they fucking rock and they still rock and that’s just it. I have lots of MOTÖRHEAD, all the RAMONES records. All the good shit, I got it. I don’t have everything, but I think I have the good stuff, that’s for sure.
What beloved music do you share with your parents and equally love?
My dad’s been passed away since 1991. But my mother, the music that brought us together…Kyuss used to practice at the house sometimes -we had an extra room and we’d put our gear in there and we’d play in there- and my mom would go get a thing called a Budweiser party ball. She’d drink that shit while we were playing and then go get another one and then would offer us beers and shit and we’d be drinking, but we’d be drinking out there anyway. She loved Josh and John and Brant, she loved the boys. She’d make them stay there and she’d put on The SUPREMES and make them dance with her and shit. *Haha* They loved her too so it was cool. So yeah, The Supremes, I like 50’s and early 60’s stuff, Motown, amazing stuff. James Jamerson on bass, just really fantastic. That’s the stuff I got along with my folks. My dad was more like, GEORGE THOROGOOD and BOB DYLAN. Before he died, he ordered Kyuss Wrench on cassette and he called me and said he’s proud of me and stuff. That was cool. But yeah, he liked Rock And Roll music for sure. ELVIS, BEATLES, stuff like that. The good stuff.
What are some of the most memorable shows you’ve ever seen?
Henry Rollins had a roomate, Joe Cole, and he got shot in the face right in front of him, in Hollywood I believe, California. A hate crime, like he was gay or something and some guy took it upon himself to go shoot the two gay guys or something. I don’t know some bullshit like that. Some freak, some religious dude, who knows? Anyways, he shot Joe Cole in the face and killed him right in front of Henry and I had tickets to go see him play the next month or something like that at the Whiskey, they had four shows sold out at the Whiskey and they played them. I went to my show, and man, they had the house lights on, no stage lighting and lights were pure white in the room. Just like the brightest work lights in the world so you’re looking around at other people while this band’s just tearing it up. I mean, they played so powerfully. I’ve never seen anything like that, that was fuel to play powerful. I mean, God, it was one of the most intense shows I’ve ever seen. Ever. Very emotional at the same time and pretty intense, insane, you know? That was probably the one that stuck out the most.
I saw CHUCK BERRY and LITTLE RICHARD play years and years ago at an Indian gaming casino and it was a very Spinal Tap kind of moment. Little Richard had enough sense to have another piano player there to keep time for him because he was old, you know, but Chuck Berry had this ego thing. He had a great band playing with him, he had a different bands set up for him in every town I think. But he was out of a lot of time, he really had a hard time keeping up -knock on wood it doesn’t happen to me- but he was pretty old and it was a very Spinal Tap moment because at one point they’re doing the end of Johnny B. Goode and of course, it’s gonna be the last song and he brings these old ladies on the stage up out of the crowd -and I mean, these are OLD ladies. It was funny.- and he started lighting up once the girls were on the stage! He started duck walkin’ and doing his thing, the things that he invented and he gets in front of this one gal, he drops down on his knees and he gets stuck. The curtain closes and they’re trying to lift him up, you know? *Haha* I think he hurt his back, poor guy. I mean, he was in his 70’s or some shit at this point so come on, come on. Pretty amazing. Pretty funny. Anyways, that was a great show too, that I’ll never forget.
Is there any bands that you’ve always wanted to see but never got the chance to?
I got to see a lot of cool bands. I never got to see the version of BLACK FLAG I wanted to see. I saw a version of it, which is great. But I never got to see THE version. I love live music. I go out all the time to see shows when we’re able to and I will again but I’ve been pretty fortunate, I got to play with a lot of bands and a lot of artists that I never would have dreamed I would have the chance to so I feel pretty fortunate, I feel very lucky and I count my lucky stars all the time. I don’t know if there’s anybody I wish I could see. I saw a version of the STOOGES but it was a later version with Mike Watt on bass, which did not suck, but I never saw the original band. But I’m not gonna cry over spilled milk, I got to see it and I get to listen to the records.
I can learn a lot of stuff from a band like that, how to be on stage, how to be a front man…just think of Iggy Pop as a front man, that’s an amazing thing. Nobody will ever touched that, he’s just too far advanced for anybody else who claims to be a front man. He is the man.
What are some of your all time favorite music books, zines, documentaries, etc?
I’ll tell you man, I’ve always liked Flipside fanzine when I was kid, Maximumrockandroll. I like a lot of the Henry Rollins books, a lot of his poetry and stuff, but Get In The Van is great. I have lots of different kinds of music books. Dee Dee Ramones’ books, I think they’re pretty great. His way of approaching things. He couldn’t really tie his shoes, I don’t think but man could he write a song! Spray Paint The Walls, the story of Black Flag is pretty cool. A friend of mine gave me that book. Severed is cool, the Black Dahlia Murders…that’s not really a music book but I like it.
Documentaries, I like the Decline of Western Civilization, which is 1980 in the LA Punk Rock scene with FEAR and The GERMS and stuff like that. I love stuff like that. Documentaries are amazing. Not always music ones but I like a lot of documentaries and Zeitgeist, the movie and stuff like that. It makes you think about things. Fahrenheit 911 stuff like that. Makes some people think, some people are just like, “That’s bullshit! Blah Blah Blah.” Ok. So when people have paperwork to back up what they’re saying, you don’t agree? Okay, cool. Some people are just blind to everything that the government or anybody else that fuck them over, you know? Really? Wow. But uh, capitalism, killing everybody.
What’s the most impressive band you’ve toured with?
WEEN. With Queens Of Stone Age, they took Kyuss on tour too. First time I saw them was on the Chocolate And Cheese tour and Kyuss was opening up so I went to go see my boys, I was living in San Francisco playing in the Blag Dahlia band and I went to see ’em and I was like, “Whoa!” They had Andrew Weiss on bass from the ROLLINS BAND and wow man, it was super rad. Cool band and then touring with them, you notice that they’re different every night, they wrote a new three hour set every night. Different songs, they had such a vast catalogue, so much music to choose from. People would follow them around and see them from show to show every single night. On tour, selling shirts like the Deadheads would do. Making money off the band but they didn’t care about it. Right? Cool, whatever. They’d follow them around and go see ’em play and I was impressed by that. Pretty cool band and cool guys too. I’d watch them every night, different show. I’d go watch 40 minutes, go back to my backstage, pound a couple beers do whatever I was going to do, spend an hour doing that then go back out and still catch an hour or so worth of music, then leave, come back, still see 20 minutes and then they’d be over. Then we could party with him. It was amazing.
Is there any classic or universally acclaimed artist you missed out when they first came out, and discovered way later?
Yes. BLUE ÖYSTER CULT. What a fucking great find that I found later on in life. Come on. Come on! What a score! Thee Slayer Hippy, drummer from POISON IDEA, he and I recorded a couple songs for a tribute record with him on drums. One is ME 262 and the other one is Tattooed Vampire. I heard of them when I was a kid, Don’t Fear The Reaper, that’s their big classic song, I get it, great song, cool. It’s like knowing LED ZEPPELIN but only hearing Stairway to Heaven. Yeah, it’s a great song. It’s an amazing, well crafted song, obviously important to everybody but I don’t need to hear it again, right this very second because I know the song. I think it’s great and I wouldn’t turn it off if somebody put it on, don’t get me wrong. But Blue Öyster Cult, dissecting their catalogue, wow! Don’t Fear The Reaper is nothing compared to what they got. that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what the commercial success was for them. So ME 262, prince of turbojet, so cool man. I sang all these different part harmonies on it and played bass, just really cool stuff. Blue Öyster Cult, for sure. What a score to find later in my life.
If you think of the music I listened to, you’d think that I might have already been hip to it my whole life. The solo and all that shit. I mean, I knew of it when I was a kid. I just never had a chance to have anybody lead me to it. My older brother listened JOY DIVISION and stuff. He wasn’t like, “check out this Blue Öyster Cult record brother.” He wasn’t doing that, he was listening to NEW ORDER and shit. Nothing against that, I love Joy Division, I think they’re great but I hated them as a kid. I love DEVO, they’re cool. KRAFTWERK are great too.
Is there an artist that you love in genre that you typically don’t listen to?
The Ride. David Allan Coe has a couple good jams, Country wise. I mean, I’m not the biggest Country dude, come on, I’m not like “Woo-hoo! Get on a horse and ride!” I’m not that guy. I get on a motorcycle maybe, that’s about it. Horses are scary, man. Anyways, Country’s kind of trippy. But again, I like it. I like Rap too, I just don’t listen to it all the time. Somebody puts on a good artist, I’m like, “Who the fuck is this? This is great.” Sometimes, it’s undeniably good. There’s good musicians, good Rap posses, good bands, good solo artists in all genres of music, if you search them out. Like BJORK, what a great singer! Not always my style of music I listen to you though, I’m not into Techno style kinds of stuff. “Techno? Heck No!”, that’s what I say but that’s just me. I got nothing against it and I kind of appreciate the kids that are getting a generator and getting out in the middle of nowhere for three days straight on LSD and getting cray cray. I think that’s alright that these kids are still keeping it alive. The generator parties are still alive, it’s just a different style of music, and I can dig that. I can appreciate that a lot. It’s just not my style of stuff. Like Punk Rock isn’t for everybody, obviously, but it’s for me.
Just like a lot of country stuff. It’s not for everybody. But I like the Outlaw Country. I don’t like that new and improved, everything-safe-country, not my vibe.
Is there any unpopular or underated music that you’d like to promote?
There’s lots of stuff that people don’t know about, bands like ARTICLES OF FAITH, but I think if people heard it, they’d be like, “Whoa, this is great.” Great songwriting in there. I’m a huge CHEAP TRICK fan, if we’re bringing up Illinois but they’re pretty well known and sought after, they’re not unpopular. I remember when the BUTTHOLE SURFERS were starting to get popular and they weren’t that popular to begin with. I saw them back in the day and I was just blown away. Laser lights, backdrop projecting things, whoa! But as far as unpopular music is concerned, I think everything I listen to his is really unpopular to the masses. That’s why it’s worth a lot of money. We get these early 45 for these Punk bands and there’s 300 of them in existence, that’s why they cost so much. You get The BEATLES’ White Record, you think that thing would be worth a bunch of money but it’s not because there’s millions of them pressed. So it’s just another record that’s out there, even though the music that’s on it is amazing. But you get some bad DIY, recorded in their living room, Punk Rock 45 that sounds like total shit if you want to look at it from a production standpoint, and it costs $6,000 for two songs! *Haha* Like the first BAD BRAINS 45, $10,000! $6,000 without the sleeve folded inside of it. Holy shit. That’s a lot of dough for two songs that are like, a minute and 10 seconds long, but there’s only 500 of them pressed so it’s sought after, it’s rare and it’s classic. 10 grand though? Come on now! I ain’t got no 10 grand! Shit. Anyways, pretty cool, though. I have a great record collection and I like to collect records.
What band or artist do you believe has acheived the most flawless sequence of 3 albums in a row?
I think NIRVANA did three records that were pretty fucking great for the time. I mean, I haven’t listened to a Nirvana record in years but I remember Bleach when it came out and I saw them when they were playing Raji’s and Jabberjaw coffeehouse in LA, small, small places, and they came back opening for SONIC YOUTH and then they came back and I think Sonic Youth might have been opening for them. It’s crazy how fast it kind of exploded for them. I liked that last record a lot because, it kind of goes back to the production of Bleach, real raw production. Where Nevermind, their big commercially successful record, it’s very clean but if you think about it, for them not go down in numbers of sales, which is pretty unheard of on a third record, to do the same as Nevermind or more is like, “What? How the fuck do you do that?” That’s amazing. It’s amazing and I know for a fact it’s hard to do that shit. That’s like impossible. They put more money into the band because you made money in the last record then commercially, you’re an industry failure even though you sold 2 million records. You didn’t sell 21 like the previous record though and we gave you money so you’re an industry failure at the end of the day. I’m just a failure, how you doing? I think those two records are pretty, pretty, cool. I’m gonna listen to them later tonight, just because I haven’t listened to them in a long time.
Can you think of a band or artist put out only one fantastic release before calling it quits?
Yes, absolutely. Many. The SEX PISTOLS put out one record. You’d think that they had some more in them. For them to be so like, “We’re the best Punk Rock band of all time!” No dudes. You did one record. Amazing record at that but who cares. Just saying, don’t have to be a dick. Amazing record though, I’d put it on right now and fucking rock the fuck out on it but, but…they did one record. X-RAY SPEX, another one. Germ Free Adolescents, great record. I think Poly Styrene was 16 years old when she wrote those songs and sang on that record. Amazing stuff. The STAINS are cool too. SST band, had one record. I have that, it’s pretty cool. Very rare EP to find. I’m sure there’s lots of seven inch 45s in the Punk era that were fucking flawless, cool records but never did anything after that.
What albums have been on a heavy rotation lately?
Well, like I said, I’m always listening to New Values by IGGY POP. I don’t know why, I just dig these grooves and there’s some cool background singers on, these girls. There’s sax, and all these different kinds of instruments on it. It’s just a cool record. It really rocks.
I’m also into some Punk Rock stuff, like BAD BRAINS’ first record, the roar cassettes, Rock for Lights is great too. A lot of the same songs in there, but just powerful stuff like that, stuff that moves you when you listen to it, that’s the stuff I like. That’s on heavy rotation right now as well. SIMON STOKES has been on heavy rotation, a bunch of different records he’s done, mainly The Nighthawks and The Black Whip Thrill Band.
What are some up and coming artists that you would recommend?
You know, I’m kind of stuck in my old ways. I like TRASH TALK, but they’re not really up and coming and I don’t even know if they’re going anymore. Unfortunately, nobody’s really going right now, it’s kind of a shame. But HOBO MAGIC from Australia is pretty cool. Three piece band, a great bass player, fantastic band, young kids. Check them out. Kind of Stoner, kind of Doom. Kind of cool, actually.
Is there a band that you’ve discovered live recently that blew you away?
Yeah, like I said, Hobo Magic was super rad and Trash Talk is probably the best live band out there right now. They take what the Bad Brains were in the early days, when H.R. was fucking jumping around, going crazy and controlling the whole room, well, that’s what Lee does, from Trash Talk. He controls the whole fucking room. He’s badass. He gets everybody stage diving, everybody going off. He’s an amazing frontman, I dig him. I can’t really say Trash Talk’s up and coming but they’re just fucking great. I love them.
Final Thoughts?
I have a new record out with Mondo Generator, it’s called As Good As It Gets. Or we originally called it As Good As It Gets but no, we decided called it Fuck it. Just because fuck it. What are we gonna do? So check it out, on Heavy Psych Sounds, out of Italy. It’s our best Mondo Generator yet. It’s offensive, it’s aggressive, it’s heavy, it’s Doom, it’s melodic. It’s allllll things in between that I know how to do well. It’s Mike Pygmie on guitar, Mike Amster on drums and myself, three piece. I wrote a lot of songs, we covered a lot of songs, Mike wrote a lot of music pieces, and I put lyrics to it. We wrote a lot of songs as a three piece together as well. So it’s a co-written record, which is a great thing for Mondo, I don’t have to write all the stuff anymore. It makes the record better for me because having other cooks in the kitchen, make good songs better. You can be a judge for yourself. Please give it a listen, Fuck it by Mondo Generator.
1 Comment
Naomi
December 3, 2023 at 22:57Really appreciate this article, it’s very comprehensive, with loads of recommendations that will take a fair while to listen to (as opposed to N.O. Hits At All Vol 5 – with a total run time of 19 minutes). Glad for something interesting to read. Kudos for nailing the interview.