Music
Press
03/09
Rev Dan
Dead Boy Productions Interview with Pickled Punks
And who may I ask, are we are speaking with?
Destin, I hit on the drums.
Pickled punks, a unique name, how did that come about?
Spike has been wanting to use PICKLED PUNKS as a band name for a while now. We all like the old skool FreakShow and Carnival theme and Pickled Punk exhibits were almost mandatory to any proper FreakShow (often seen as 2 headed and mutated fetuses displayed in jars of formaldehyde).
You started originally as a Demented Are Go cover band with a few of your own songs? Or was it the other way around where you just start to establish yourself as a band with a few cover songs?
Actually in Austin almost all the Punk venues have a tribute night during Halloween, we were asked by the booking agent of Room 710 to do a DAG set for Halloween ’08, wasn’t even our idea….sounded fun though. The only DAG song we were doing at the time was ‘Pickled and Preserved’ since it had ‘PICKLED’ in the song, the song was just fun and natural for all of us to play and was definitely one of the directions our own song writing would take. PICKLED ARE GO is a side project fueled only by special events like Halloween and is a completely different band other than the fact that it involves all the members of PICKLED PUNKS. Although, you may hear a DAG cover thrown in a live set here and there.
Now I know that Spike is from the Barnyard Ballers and you are from Concombre Zombi. What about the other members?
Well this is Mike’s first band actually, he was holding out on us for a while when he moved to Austin. He’s a great guitarist all around and has some awesome ideas with song writing. Mike has also played guitar for Barnyard Ballers at the most recent Hollywood Showdown and will also play a Valentines Day show with the Ballers in Hollywood. Jasen has played Bass in a couple of bands that never really reached the surface, currently he also plays bass for Los Hispanos UK, punk band that has incorporated the double bass in to their sound. Jasen was one of the original ‘Santa Cruz’ psychos and was co-creator of America’s first psycho zine called ‘Welcome To The Nightmare’, if you can find copies of these let us know.
What made you want to start this band?
Concombre Zombi was starting to slow down to a complete stop just after Spike moved here from San Diego, just seemed inevitable to start a new band. Just like when Mark (aka Bill) of HAYRIDE TO HELL moved here, he and I started Concombre Zombi, just fell together that way. PICKLED PUNKS are a group of like minded, alcohol induced friends that came up with the mastermind idea to start a band together to play some shows, have some fun and get drunk for cheap.
Last year you released the bands first EP, how has that worked out for you guys?
Well, we didn’t release it to the public. We wanted to have this available only at live shows, our favorite local record store (Cheapo) and direct snail mail orders, basically the same way we all had to go about getting new music growing up. We will be finishing our full length album this year sometime and it should have proper distribution.
Seeing how it’s available the old fashioned way, how can everyone get a hold of your EP?
If you aren’t able to come to a live show or make it to Cheapo Discs in Austin then contact us on our MySpace page (www.myspace.com/pickledkrew) and we’ll let you know what to do to get one sent to your mail box.
Any plans for the new year?
We’ll probably do some touring to the West Coast and should finish up our full length album by Summer. We’re looking forward to new after parties, getting shit faced with new friends, passing out on cleaner floors than last year and getting banned from more venues that aren’t ready for a PICKLED PUNKS live show.
Last words?
We are doing this for fun and if someone takes something we do serious and gets offended easily then stand way in the back of the crowd in the dark away from all the fun or just stay at home next time and bitch back and forth online with the other Cyber-PsychoSillies. We’ll be at the bar! Cheers to our Pickled Krew and the Pickled Kuntz, ATX!”
Copyright © 2009 Dead Boy Productions All rights reserved. - Deadboypro.com
Discography
6 song EP, self titled
Working on a full length, to be released Winter 2009
Photos
Bio
Come one! Come all! Get your tickets to the Freak Show! Pay the measly fee to see the deformed monstrosities that have been pickled in plain sealed jars. Are they human? Are they monsters? Neither, they are the Pickled Punks and they are pure freak show psychobilly!
Americas newest blasphemy of nature has gnawed its way through the womb of the Lone Star State with a hard but old school psychobilly sound, and a live show that teeters on the brink of insanity. Even their hometown of Austin, Texas-- the Live Music Capitol of World-- can barely keep the Punks sealed away. Although already banned from a couple of venues in the state of Texas for being too extreme, the Pickled Punks continue their mad tour. Lucky for the Pickled Punks, Austin alone has over 200 music venues... but give them time.
Spike, the demented ringmaster, spanks the audience with insane physical stage antics, improv humor and verbal lashings. Not even band mates or innocent trash cans are safe. Watching a Pickled Punks live show will make you happy that the microphone is not cordless and acts as a leash, because it could get worse. Much worse. This isnt the first time around the circus for Spike. Vocalist and founding member of one of Americas first psychobilly bands (San Diego's Barnyard Ballers); Spike has been infecting the World since 1992. After meeting up with Destin, the drum tormentor of high octane psycho band, Concombre Zombi, the two decided a new Austin psycho band was ready to be unleashed. They scavenged their local dark and dingy dive bar, the Jackalope, and found the bass-slapping whiskey-slewing bartender, Jasenstein. Sensing that they might need to bring in the heavy artillery, they enlisted the Gretsch slinging guitarist, Marine Sgt. and Iraq vet, Mike. Together this conjoined quadruplet, some call the best looking band in psychobilly aka the Pickled Hunks, came up with their own unique sound.
Stocked up with pounds of BBQ and booze pumping through their veins, the Pickled Punks are just finishing up their first full-length CD and planning some tours through the US. So keep an eye out and a nose-down for this Freak Show when it comes to your town, because the umbilical cord has been cut, and the Pickled Punks are on the loose reeking of formaldehyde and booze doing whatever it takes to 'preserve' their way of life.
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