#18, FALL 2005

 

 

PISSED JEANS

STARING AT YOUR ZITS IN THE MIRROR FOR AN HOUR STRAIGHT AND CRYING WHILE STONE SOBER

by Tony Rettman

So there I was sitting in the apartment last November drinking an afternoon tall boy (Wew! Yeah! Tall Boy!) when I heard a mighty thump hit hard against my door. I ran like a schoolboy runs after dropped knickers, opened said door and watched in slow motion as a weighed down record mailer fell right upon my feets. I saw the return address of Toms River, New Jersey and knew immediately it was from the good dudes at the Parts Unknown label who I’ve blabbed on and on about in previous Blastitude columns in regards to the fine job they do in reissuing obscure jams from Hardcores’ days of yore. The package held the vinyl re-issue of Vile’s ’82 LP ‘Solution’ (More on that at a later date) as well as a batch of seven inchers from current HC bands Parts Unknown had put out. They were all potent platters of vitriol, but the last one I got to was this bizarre looking big holed single with a ‘Diver Down’ looking cover. With what little info I could scrape from the minimal packaging, I came to the conclusion the band’s name was Pissed Jeans and settled in for some more honest-to-the-gills speed bashing. But once the needle hit and the shit brown riffdom of the track ‘Throbbing Organ’ came lurching outta the cones, I knew this was no glory daze of ’81 type unit. So many fanboy references flooded my noggin. Drunks With Guns, Brainbombs, Church Police, The Controllers, etc. But this wasn’t no mere xeroxing of these units done by a buncha poseurs with good record collections and bad breath. This was the real deal zapped-to-hell insanity shit that practically foams off your box. As the afternoon became the evening and the tallboys emptied themselves into my gullet, I rode Pissed Jeans' vinyl pony way into the dark of the morning. Before I passed out from exhaustion and alcohol poisoning, I decided I hadda know who these fucks were and I hadda know real now like. In no less than two days time I saw the band perform live (A swirlingly loud sexually deprived angst ridden blast) and met all four members in all their surprisingly squeaky clean glory. What can I say? I have that kinda clout. Once I learned they hail from Allentown, Pennsylvania it all made perfect sense. The burg is home to Jeff The Pigeon, the swingenest party palace/performance space on the east coast. It’s the kinda place that would make both William Goldman and Super Dave Osbourne proud. Kids gobbling pills like Chiclets…Fencing matches with gigantic cardboard mailing tubes…Hot young girls writhing in sexual glory all over a whiskey soaked floor… Boston ‘82 style pig piles…Tinsel fights… Supermarket trolley races… this is all common stuff on a normal night at the Pigeon. Then there’s all the young, fucked-up, loud and proud combos centered around the Pigeon. Air Conditioning, Pearls And Brass, Bread Machine, The New Flesh, The Dreaded Beign, etc. Pissed Jeans (of course) fit the whole ‘scene’ like a red rubber glove. They are currently gearing up for a tour of the southern-ish region of our country with the mighty Air Conditioning. If this monsters of white noise rock tour comes through your town to party it down, be sure to weld a metal plate into your bung to prevent anal leakage/ rapeage. It could be severe. And then there’s the imminent release of their debut LP ‘Shallow’ on the Parts Unknown label, an event I’m practically heaving frogs over in anticipation. Interview done rather lazily via the electronic mail in May of this year.

Tony Rettman—O.K. first and foremost, in one hundred words or less, what does Unit Pride (1) mean to you?

Matt (vocalist)—Probably the antithesis of Pissed Jeans, since we would never brag to be proud of our units. Although I think the pencil-drawn Step Forward logo (2) speaks volumes. A skinny bald-headed albino in cut-off shorts with his hands behind his back with his knees buckled, probably about to fall into a giant ravine. Have you ever seen that guy?

T.R.—Oh yeah, of course! But my question is who is the coolest looking/most retarded looking Straight Edge mosh guy…the Step Forward logo dude or the dude on the cover of the ‘X Marks The Spot’ compilation? (3)

M—The Step Forward guy looks great and his pose is totally confounding, but the X Marks The Spot guy is delivering a punch and has a bit of a hunchback…or maybe just an oversized torso. I guess if I had to write a book about one of the characters, I’d choose the Step Forward guy. But if I had to go steal a bunch of hamburgers and throw them in a dumpster, I’d want the X Marks The Spot guy to come along.

T.R.—O.K. enough Tom Fuckery, let’s get down to why Pissed Jeans got together and how you know each other. Why did you decide to start playing this fucked up music?

M—We all play in The Gate Crashers (4), but we all play different instruments in Pissed Jeans. I’ve been playing in bands for years with these guys. Three of us went to Nazareth High School together. As I remember it, the idea for Pissed Jeans was spawned on a drive with the Crashers from Vegas to L.A. in between sweaty sing-a-longs to ‘WWF The Music Volume Two’ (Probably the only decent thing Simon Cowell (5) ever produced) The idea was to start a different kinda Punk band focused on dead ended carnal cravings, sexual depression…that sort of thing. Mainly we just wanted to bludgeon the listener will dull, monotonous droning rock music that just sucks the energy out of you, the musical equivalent to watching a toilet flush. We first got going under the name Unrequited Hard-On but for some reason, we decided to proceed as Pissed Jeans instead, probably just to keep from limiting ourselves to side-project status (If that makes any sense) I was most inspired at the time by a band called the Whittingtons, who released a single on the Italy-based Goodbye Boozy label called ‘I’m Young, Dumb and Full of Cum’ I’ve never actually heard the record, but the mental image of the record helped me wrap my head around what we were looking to go for.

T.R.—Is there any documentation of Unrequited Hard-On?

Brad (guitar)—We recorded a very rough demo which included all the songs that appear on the Pissed Jeans demo, with the exception of ‘Night Minutes’. There were only a few of them sold and I think five or so went to some random U.K. distro.

T.R.—It seems lazy rock critic peeps like to compare you guys to Fang (6), Drunks With Guns (7) and Flipper (8). I really have no problem with that, but it seems to me you guys are more into riffs than those bands. Am I on the right track like Gary Coleman or am I missing the boat completely?

M—Yeah man, I think you’re definitely on track! I mean, I guess we fit in the same boat as Fang, Flipper or Drunks With Guns, but we’re definitely not on drugs. While those dudes escaped reality and zonked out on all sorts of uppers and downers, Pissed Jeans is more about staring at your zits in the mirror for an hour straight while crying stone sober. I think we’re definitely riff oriented. We’ll get more stoked on listening to the first Goatsnake (9) record than a Zeni Geva (10) b-side. I think once the LP comes out and people hear it, the descriptions might start to vary. It’s not just straight ahead chug like the seven inch. Probably the biggest influence on Pissed Jeans that everyone misses is Stickmen With Rayguns (11), probably the best group to ever come out of Texas that didn’t feature Bushwick Bill and Willie D

B—I don’t think there is a band more perfect to me than Stickmen With Rayguns. Lyrically…musically…everything. Their song ‘Scavenger of Death’ was one of the first Punk songs I ever heard and it’s always stuck with me. The sound of Pissed Jeans also comes from many of the early 80’s noisy Punk bands. Bands like Fang, Flipper, No Trend (12), Ivy Green (13), (the Australian) X (14), Drunks With Guns, the Shattered Faith 7” (15) and the G.R.I.M. (16) all had a huge influence on the music written.

T.R.—How did you dudes get from being into early 90’s Hardcore stuff to digging on the obscure stuff from the early 80’s cannon of Punk/HC? Was there a certain ‘old dude’ who turned you onto it or what?

M—Brad was lucky enough to have an obsessive Punk Rock record collecting neighbor who kinda turned our whole gang onto Agnostic Front (17), Capitalist Casualties (18), The Abused (19) and Crossed Out (20) years before we could even drive. After that initial splash I mainly obsessed over anything obnoxious and loud and slowly stumbled into the taste I have today. Having Double Decker Records (21) and the endless musical knowledge pit named Jaime Holmes certainly played an invaluable role in my musical development.

B—Yeah, my sister’s friend’s brother Carl lived up the road from me and was way into Punk. He worked at the local video store and one day I was there to rent some eight or sixteen bits and he was asking me what I was listening to on my CD player. At the time I was listening to Sepultra (22) and we got started listening to music. He eventually made me a mixed tape that had Agnostic Front ‘United Blood’(23), Agnostic Front “Victim in Pain’(24), as well as Life’s Blood(25), early Madball (26) and Cause For Alarm (27)

T.R.—It seems you guys are sorta on ‘your own plane’ in some way. You’re not quite arty enough to play an illegal Brooklyn loft space but you seem too weird to play a VFW Hall with current HC bands. So where does Pissed Jeans go? Do you feel accepted? Do you care?

M—I definitely think you’re on point with that one. Honestly though, we’ve had such a warm reception so far, I’m trying to figure out what we’re doing wrong. I can’t understand why, but we’ve only been met with favorable responses. We have shared bills with The Oath (28) and not got booed off stage by dudes just looking to mosh and we’ve played shows with Prurient (29) and had the intellectual ear bleeder types stick around for our full set. We’re hitting the road with Air Conditioning in June and I think we compliment each other nicely and then we can get a better feel of outsider’s responses from that. I’m sure we’ll be playing in front of Punk crowds and noise crowds but it really doesn’t matter to me…so long as there’s a couple of ladies in the audience. I think Jeff the Pigeon might have spoiled us as the kids go nuts for anyone. Whether it’s the Adolescents-style punk of Clorox Girls or the Caroliner side-project Tarantism, the crowd gets in their face and gets wine on their t-shirts. It’s been a really fertile environment with Pearls and Brass and Air Conditioning playing with us all the time, so we never really spend too much time wondering what the rest of the world will be thinking.

T.R.—So what’s the deal with this debut LP? Is it recorded yet? Is it holy?

M—Yeah, it’s all recorded! We recorded it in February of this year and hopefully the compact disc version will be out for our tour in June with the vinyl to follow. Eight tracks, over thirty minutes. Way heavier and out there than the single. It gives a much more understandable picture of what we’re about. After that, we’re doing a split twelve inch with Pearls and Brass.

T.R.—We talked before about you guys maybe finding it hard to ‘fit in’ somewhere. Who are some bands Pissed Jeans feel affiliation with and why?

M—There’s so many bands out there that I totally dig. Dudes that I can vouch for musically and personally would be Air Conditioning, Pearls & Brass, Prurient, The Intelligence, The New Flesh, Leprechaun Catering, Career Suicide, Clorox Girls, Pay Toilets….I could go on and on. I’ve seen them all live and they’ve all totally destroyed. I’m not sure if there’s any specific theme that runs through all the bands I listed, except that maybe that all seem to have specific influences but have created a distinct sound all their own. Plus, I’m pretty sure I’ve moshed to all of them.

T.R.—What would be the ultimate bill Pissed Jeans could play with any bands living or dead?

M—Probably if we got squeezed between the Zero Boys (30), Hanatarash (31), Ivy Green and G.I.S.M (32). with Hans and Florian (33) deejaying between sets. The show would take place on a beach and after the show we’d all go hang-gliding with Father Yod. (34)

T.R.—And my final question, if your father was dying in front of you and the only way to revive him was to eat a turd wrapped in a hot dog bun, would you do it?

M—Oh yeah! In a heartbeat!

T.R.—Perfect.

AIR CONDITIONING/PISSED JEANS TOUR DATES
6/03, Friday - Bethlehem, PA
@ The Globe w/ Verwustung, The Headaches
6/04, Saturday - Baltimore, MD
@ Charm City Art Space w/ Double Dagger, Fascist Fascist
6/05, Sunday - Virginia Beach, VA @ TBA
6/06, Monday - Roanoke, VA @ TBA
6/07, Tuesday - Asheville, NC @ TBA
6/08, Wednesday - Nashville, TN
@ Springwater w/ Cider, The Darvocets, American Waste
6/09, Thursday - Lexington, KY @ TBA
6/10, Friday - Pittsburgh, PA
@ Brave New World w/ Clorox Girls, the Observers
6/11, Saturday - Washington, DC
@ Warehouse Next Door w/ Navies
6/12, Sunday - Philadelphia, PA @ The Khyber w/ Otesanek

FOOTNOTES—

1) Unit Pride were a Straight Edge Hardcore band that existed all too briefly in the late 80’s. Named after John Dickson’s novel on the Korean War, this Northern Californian power units’ only release was the ‘Then And Now’ 7” e.p. (released on the Step Forward label in December of 1988). They sounded exactly like Youth of Today, looked like a high school basketball team from Nebraska, and will forever be cooler than Lightening Bolt. Their entire recorded output was released in the CD and LP format a few years back by the Mankind label. Apparently the singer for Unit Pride, Eric Ozenne went on to be in Redemption ’87 and The Nerve Agents. I have no fucking clue what those bands sound like and I would like to keep it that way.

2) Step Forward made these horrendous shirts that said ‘Drug Free Youth’ all over them and whatnot. They were totally gay and I’m proud to say I never wore one. As far as the logo guy goes, here’s a link to give you somewhat of an idea of the logo dude Matt is talking about…check him out in the lower right hand side of the back cover of the Unit Pride 7”-- http://www.thisispunkrock.btinternet.
co.uk/ps/ushc/mz/unit.htm

3) The ‘X Marks The Spot’ compilation 7” was released in the summer of 1988 on Smorgasbord Records and featured three Connecticut Straight Edge Hardcore bands—Up Front, Wide Awake and the highly underrated Pressure Release. As far the cover goes, here ya go-- http://www.thisispunkrock.btinternet.co.uk/ps/
ushc/2/xmarks.htm

4) The Gate Crashers--http://www.whitedenim.com/
gatecrashers/

5) Simon Cowell is some asshole I suppose.

6) Fang were an acid damaged Punker unit from Berkeley, California who emerged (somehow) from the ashes of the bizarre Connecticut teen punk ensemble Tapeworm. Fang put out one mind bending 7” (Anyone whose got a spare to trade, get in touch) and two excellent 12”s’ in their time. Everything after 1984 is more or less crap. Fang gained some notoriety in the early 90’s when their vocalist, Sammy Town, was incarcerated for murdering his girlfriend Dixie. Selected discography—Enjoy The View/Yukon Fang 7” (Fang, 1981) Landshark 12” (Boner, 1982) Where The Wild Things Are (Boner, 1983)

7) Drunks With Guns came from St. Louis, Missouri in the mid-80’s with connections to the mean spirited Punk/Hardcore units Sacred Order and White Pride. Their wall of sludge guitar sound and die-fucking-die aesthetic was inspirational to a generation of people who knew the unconsciously mean were the cream of humankind. Any and all records from this unit released between 1985-1990 are worthy of your time and money.

8) My brother once dressed Flipper up in make-up and drove them around in his station wagon while they blasted Leonard Cohen. True story.

9) Goatsnake- “I” (Rise Above, 1999)

10) A footnote about Zeni Geva would take too much time and I’m too lazy. Make up your own.

11) Stickmen With Rayguns were a Punk unit from Fort Worth, Texas in the 80’s fronted by that late, great, always-cramming-something-up-his-butt type of guy, Bobby Soxx. Their distinct brand of thoroughly loud and antagonistic terror rock made them legend among all those with social problems. Check out the ‘Some People Deserve To Suffer’ CD collection that came out on Emperor Jones a few years back and give your rug a tug in honor of ole Bobby.

12) No Trend were from Washington D.C. in the early 80’s and did their best to distance themselves from the rest of the clean cut Hardcore D.C. scene by playing a twisted, Flipper-esque brand of dirge Punk. Their track ‘Mass Sterilization Caused By Venereal Disease’ was a big hit on college radio when I was eleven and still holds up to this day. Teen Beat put out a CD awhile back compiling all the material they released on their own before signing to Touch and Go in 1985. It is entitled ‘Teen Love—Early Hits’ and is relatively cheap and you should buy it. End of story. Or is it? Check this -- http://users.erols.com/
teenbeat/notrend.html

13) Ivy Green was a notorious Punk unit from Holland who were heavy on the slobber. They somehow managed to squeak out a couple disturbed singles and an LP on Dutch Warner Brothers in the late 70’s, but were soon dumped by the label. They continued to exist in one form or another until the late 80’s when they called it quits. Their catalogue of work has never been officially re-issued and needs to be BIG TIME.

14) The Australian X (not to be confused with the more popular band named X from L.A.) were formed in the late 70’s and put out two LP’s, the self released ‘Aspirations’ (X Music, 1979) and ‘At Home With You’ (Major, 1985) Both of them were produced by the legendary Aussie guitarist Lobby Loyde (The Wild Cherries, The Coloured Balls, Rose Tattoo, etc.) and they will absolutely scorch the hair off your chest. Even yours, over there ma’am. Check out the CD re-ish of ‘Aspirations’ on AmRep and wear a vest.

15) Shattered Faith – ‘I Love America’/’Reagan Country’ 7” (Posh Boy, PBS9) 1981

16) The G.R.I.M. (The initials stood for ‘Getting Revenge In ‘Merica’) came out of the Oxnard, California Hardcore scene (Nardcore dude!) in the early 80’s. They exhibited a very strange teenaged Saccharine Trust vibe on their debut 12”, released on the ESP of Hardcore, Mystic Records, in 1984. They appeared on a few of the Mystic compilations plus they released a second LP in 1988 entitled ‘Face of Betrayal’ (Alchemy) that I have to admit complete ignorance on, which is probably for the best.

17) http://thepromisehardcore.com/lj/stigma.mov

18) Capitalist Casualties, along with Crossed Out, Infest, Spazz, etc. were part of that whole Slap-A-Ham scene in California in the early 90’s and they were pretty fucking good, man. Check out the discography CD that came out on Six Weeks last year to rediscover those wacky 90’s with all its power violence and clear cola.

19) The Abused were one of the most brutal units to come out of the early 80’s NYHC scene. Their ‘Loud and Clear’ 7” (Abused Records, 1983) is one of the hardest sounding/looking documents in NYHC history, but you don’t fucking care.

20) Crossed Out fucking rule. That is all.

21) http://www.firstpress.net/doubledecker/

22) I’m not even going to touch this one. Aren’t they like Ethno-metal or something?

23) Agnostic Front –‘United Blood’ 7” (self released, 1983)

24) Agnostic Front-‘Victim In Pain’ (Ratcage, 1984)

25) Life’s Blood were on of the truly unique units to work it’s way into the NYHC scene in the late 80’s. Fiercely outspoken and musically pants shitting, they were (and still are) one of my personal faves from that era. If you can track down their eight song 7’ e.p. ‘Defiance’ (Combined Effort, 1988) you’ll be moshin’ in no time.

26) Madball are great and I like them.

27) Cause For Alarm were/are another band from the first wave of NYHC. They are still around and continue to put out records, but the only one I can recommend in good conscience is their eight song self-released 7” from 1983. Stand as one!!!

28) Das Oath are a present day Hardcore band that contains members of Charles Bronson, a HC band from the mid 90’s that everyone told me was good, but I was too busy smoking weed and listening to Hawkwind to really pay attention. Much like C.B., everyone tells me Das Oath are good too, but I’m too busy smoking pot and listening to Mangoon to really pay attention.

29) Prurient is nom de plumcake for Dominick Fernow. Or as I like to call him, ‘D.D. The emo noise machine’ (The extra ‘D’ is for ‘dominance’)

30) Growling and frantic with bizarre poppy elements, The Zero Boys were one of those quintessential out-of-nowhere (Indiana to be exact) units that could of only popped up in the early 80’s of America. Check out their debut LP ‘Vicious Circle’ (Nimrod, 1982) to get a real grasp on their buzz. Hey…anyone got that ‘History of the Zero Boys’ cassette that came out on Affirmation in ’84? If so, let’s get to swapping trade lists and not spit.

31) I hear they make noisy noise and are legendary for slinging poop or something. How quaint.

32) G.I.S.M. started somewhere around 1982 in Tokyo, Japan. They became quite synonymous for violent and confrontational live shows. Anyone who has seen video footage of these shows will attest to their utter brutality. They continued to play and record up until guitarist Randy Uchida passed away sometime in 2002. Pretty much any G.I.S.M material you can lay your hands on is worth it, so do so. ‘Endless Blockades For The Pussyfooter’ dude!

33) Two fanboys who should get a room.

34) God damn it…it’s late and I’m hungry and you expect some kinda great story about Father Yod? You most likely know the whole shmeel already. Send it in an envelope to me and I’ll run it like Dave from Connecticut. Good night…