Still Cyco After All These Years?
I try not to be too much of a fanboy in this column, but when I found out Suicidal Tendencies was playing House Of Blues December 10th, I almost cried.
Though ST isn’t the band that fully converted me into a metalhead (Megadeth), I’ve always considered it one of the most underrated and underappreciated heavy metal groups. To this day, I still remember my dad taking me to a used-record store as a pre-teen with a stack of unwanted CDs in hand, one of them being Led Zeppelin IV (I still couldn’t care less about Zeppelin – sorry). As is usually the story at those stores, my bounty earned me enough credit for one album: Join The Army. My dad, obviously nervous by the semi-ridiculous/semi-novice/semi-violent cover art asked, “Are you sure that’s what you want?” Fuck yeah, it was. Dad, I hope you appreciate ST more after reading my interview with Mike Muir (who calls at the amazingly early hour of 9 a.m. Pacific time – “I gotta take my son to preschool” – the morning after returning from a French tour), and I’m sorry I didn’t just give you the Zeppelin CD.
Mosh: How long has it been since Suicidal has done a cross-country U.S. tour?
Mike Muir: About 10 years.
M: Is that attributed mostly to your back issues? (Muir has had two back surgeries since ’03.)
MM: I had the first back surgery in 2003. We were actually in Europe when it happened, and we were goin’ to do some stuff when we got back. We had just got [bassist] Steve [Brunner] and [former drummer] Ron [Brunner, Jr.] and we were kind of getting locked in and said, “Hey, you know what, let’s go forward.” So that put a damper on things. I had the second one in 2005, so I think one of the things was you want to be at your best, especially the longer you’ve been a band. To just tour just to tour doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t accomplish anything. You have to feel like you’re making a statement, and if you can’t, then you really shouldn’t be there.
M: So what are the vibe and the expectations going into this tour?
MM: Everybody [ST lineup is completed by guitarists Mike Clark and Dean Pleasants and drummer Eric Moore] is really excited about doing this. I think for us, it’s kinda like, you know you mentioned the Sounds Of The Underground [ST closed select West Coast SOTU dates in 2007], we got offered those, then we did those shows and all the sudden the phones started ringing all over the West Coast, so last year we did the West Coast thing. You do those, and people are waiting to see how it goes, the promoters and that, then all the sudden you get all the calls from everywhere. Especially when you have a couple back surgeries, people are worried, like “What is it? What’s going on?” When you’ve had so many lineup changes: “What is it?” I think you see the vote of confidence that way, and for us, we’re going to put out a new record the beginning of next year, and a lot of people just say “wait until the new record is out,” but I think for us we’ve always had a really, really, diplomatically loud fanbase kind of thing, so for us it’s kind of like we’re going out to baptize the converted already, you know what I mean? Baptize them for the fifth time, or the 10th time. And I think that’s a vote of confidence for our band and how I feel with my back, and this and that. We’ll be playing a few new songs so people can see what we’re up to.
M: Yeah, I wanted to ask if you were going to do any new stuff.
MM: Yeah, play a couple new songs, and let them see why we’re excited and why we believe in what we’re doing. I think a band like Suicidal, that’s, you know, a big part of what we’re about.
M: Eight years between albums [2000’s Free Your Soul And Save Your Mind] isn’t Chinese Democracy, but why so long?
MM: When you have the back surgery . . . for us records are something you take to the road.
M: Obviously you didn’t have that opportunity.
MM: We didn’t have the opportunity to do that, and you put it out for a purpose. Eventually, like everyone else, we got our own Pro Tools studio and stuff like that. It took away the pressure in such terms of going into the studio. Doin’ it on our own label, too, it’s like, we don’t have to put it out just to put it out, where for a lot of people it’s that J.O.B. kind of thing, you know? For us, it was like, you know what? We’ll put something out when we want to and when we know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. And for a certain part, some of the songs are a little bit older than if you, when we were on Sony or whatever . . . and you put out a record every year or every two years. You kind of go “Wow, I wish people could hear this song” kind of thing. But unless you’re out there and really doing things, they aren’t going to hear it anyhow. So it just kind of went back to what we said, “Hey we’ve recorded a lot of stuff we haven’t put out. We’re not going to put it out just because you think people will like it or you want ’em to like it.” There’s a lot of stuff that no one’s listened to, and that’s cool with me because you do music because you love it. You do a record because there’s a purpose and a reason, and I think that when people hear the record I think there will be a lot of people who are the same as every one – a lot of people who are really excited and a lot of people really bummed out. I think a lot of people will be bummed out for the right reason: because it’s Suicidal and it’s a lot better than the bands they like. [laughs]
BAH, HUMBUG: I’ve got a love-hate relationship with Christmas: love seeing the family and eating the food; hate the religion and tacky decorations. Kinda how I feel about Armoury Records’ We Wish You A Metal Xmas And A Headbanging New Year. Lot of impressive talent (Lemmy Kilmister, Dave Grohl, Geoff Tate, Chuck Billy, Scott Ian), but for what? To hear how funny holiday songs are “metalized”? Love: Ronnie James Dio and Tony Iommi transforming “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” into a bona-fide graveyard anthem. Hate: Oni Logan, original frontman of Lynch Mob and singer of “Deck The Halls,” considered “all-star” talent.
FEEL SHITTY WEDNESDAY MORNING: There’s a lot of “metal nights” popping up through the city. Yours truly hosts the monthly Metal Up Your Tap (Myspace.com/metalupyourtap) the last Saturday of each month at Red Line Tap; Rodney Pawlak from CMF will always be the King Of Sunday night at Exit; and even The Admiral Theatre has some sort of Metal Monday now. Blake Judd and Alex Posso want in on this shit. The Nachtmystium frontman and Kuma’s Corner owner, respectively, kicked off their new night at Evil Olive (1551 W. Division) November 25th. Mr. Judd shared this with “Mosh” a week prior to launch: He and Posso will be hosting/DJing the last Tuesday of every month (December 30th being the next) and promise cheap booze ($2 High Life!), raffles, giveaways, guest DJs (maybe even some bands in the future), and of course, “all kinds of metal” . . . Speaking of Posso, the heavy metal hamburger king of Chicago, huge local-metal community supporter, and one of the friggin’ nicest dudes ever, will finally see his doom festival dream come true. Kuma’s sponsors the two-day fest December 20th and 21st at Double Door. Kongh, Lair Of The Minotaur, Jungle Rot (recently signed to Napalm;congrats), Indian, Minsk, Plague Bringer, and Yakuza are a few of the 19 acts lined up, and 100-percent of proceeds go to charity(ies), because, like I said, Posso (and Kuma’s entire staff) is one of the nicest friggin’ dudes ever. Get all the info at Myspace.com/kumasdoomfest.
mosh@illinoisentertainer.com
– Trevor Fisher
Category: Caught In A Mosh, Columns, Monthly
