Vol. 46
Saturday, September 4, 2010
©Marc Allan
All Rights Reserved
We all have that friend we don't talk to for years – until one day one of us picks up the phone and we immediately start yakking as easily as if we'd just seen each other yesterday.
It's like that with Sloppy Seconds.
The Indianapolis punk-rock band – "Junk rock," the group likes to say – just released its first disc of new material in 10 years, Endless Bummer (Kid Tested Records). And it sounds just as good and immediate as everything the band has released since its 1989 debut, Destroyed.
Sloppy still grinds out fun, funny, energetic and highly melodic punk tunes about cars, girls, monsters, comic books and drinking. Last time I wrote about them, and probably every time I've written about them, I described their music as Ramones meets Beach Boys. Endless Bummer is another worthy addition to their catalog.
We got together to talk about the new record, their career and whatever else was on their mind. Guitarist Ace Hardwhere? wasn't there, but singer B.A., bassist Bo'ba Jam and drummer Steve Sloppy were.
Here are the highlights of the conversation.
Q: It's been 10 years since the last Sloppy Seconds record. Why?
B.A.: This CD was mostly recorded in 2005. We had a lot of false alarms with labels. Whenever it came time to produce a contract, it kind of fell off the map. Finally, we got tired of announcing that Endless Bummer was coming out in six months. We just stopped playing a year and a half ago and said we're not playing until the record comes out.
Steve: We had interest from the smallest labels to a handful of mini-majors, but everyone kept just bouncing it around. Eventually, we wound up with Kid Tested. They're really well set up. They have massive international distribution. They have European and Asian affiliates. So Endless Bummer is definitely going to be available worldwide.
Q: There was never any breakup during that time, was there?
Steve: Absolutely not.
B.A. We got to the point where we didn't want to trot out the same songs again. When we toured, some of those markets we played two or three times just on the More Trouble Than They're Worth release. We would debut a couple of these songs live every time and say these are songs you're going to hear on our next record. Finally, it just got ridiculous.
Steve: We wanted to present ourselves with some integrity and not try to push a record that was a few years old.
Bo'ba: We're in Sloppy Seconds because we want to be in Sloppy Seconds. We write music primarily because we want to listen to that music. We're not just going to go out and play shows just to be playing shows. We have to have a reason to go out.
Q: The new record sounds great. It's like no time passed.
B.A.: It sounds like a Sloppy Seconds record.
Steve: We've always written songs that we wanted to hear. If people get it and support what we do, great. Come join the party. Ultimately, we write music and songs for ourselves.
Q: You Can't Kill Joey Ramone is one of the best things you've ever done. It's instantly energetic and catchy.
Steve: That song is pretty special to us. It was written a few years ago, right after Joey passed but right before Dee Dee died. So we thought the lyric "So save your prayers for Dee Dee 'cause you can't kill Joey Ramone" is, in hindsight, very poignant now.
Q: Everybody Hates the United States is a classic Sloppy Seconds song in that when you see the title, you think it's about one thing and it turns out to be about something else.
B.A.: We wrote that the summer before the 9/11 attacks. That was our reaction to having toured in Europe. Everything that everybody hates about the "Ugly Americans" are the things we really love.
Bo'ba: There was this time we were in Germany and this individual was really pissed off at me because I couldn't speak German. I was like, "Well, you're speaking English." Overall, the people in Germany and in Europe are a great audience. We loved them. But there were a couple of moments when we thought we should write a song about everyone hating the United States.
Steve: In the last 2-3 years, the song has become very reflective of the times.
Q: Achy Breaky Skull is my favorite song title on the new record. Did that start as a title and then become a song?
Steve: I came up with the title and B.A. came up with the hook. We have all worked on lyrics and arrangements. Most of our stuff is very tongue in cheek. You have to look beyond the surface to see the subtext.
B.A.: We don't literally want you to put your girlfriend in a coma so that sex is easier to come by.
Steve: Achy Breaky Skull is written from the first-person perspective of a guest from The Jerry Springer Show.
B.A.: It's like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre set to music. It's strictly entertainment.
Q: What made you decide to cover the Sweet song Action?
Steve: We've always loved going after goofy songs and making them our own. Action, we did pretty much straight ahead. It's placed as the last track and when you think about it, it's reflective of the fact that everyone wants a piece of the pie, everyone wants a little action. It makes me think about that John Lennon line about how life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. Everyone just wants to get out there and make the most of the day and get away from the boredom. That's what we try to do on a daily basis.
B.A.: Action is the kind of cover we're more likely to do in concert. We'll pull out old punk chestnuts or hard rock songs we listened to when we were teenagers. This record is probably is more indicative of what our live show is like too.
Q: The band's 20 years old – maybe a little more. Did you think you'd be playing this long?
Bo'ba: We've known each other since we were kids, so I always looked at it as Sloppy Seconds was formed when the three of us met. That was more than 20 years ago. So we picked up that element of what we thought was junk rock, picked up instruments, banged on them and become Sloppy Seconds. I'm surprised we haven't killed each other yet.
Steve: Every band should be fortunate enough to form the way we did. Essentially, we're brothers. We're going to be together. If we're making music, fine. If we're not making music, we'll still be together.
B.A.: If we weren't still playing in the band, we'd be going to the drive-in – if there were any drive-ins left. Being a career musician was not a life goal. This is just something I'm doing with my friends.
marc-allan.com
BIO:
Marc Allan is a freelance reporter/ writer whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and many other newspapers and magazines.
He's based in Indianapolis.
If you need something written, contact him at marc@marc-allan.com
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