Mike: How many copies did you press?
Bob: 5000, and we'll probably do 5000 more this summer.
Mike: How long have you ben on this tour?
Bob: This one, a little over two weeks. We started two weeks ago
Friday, so we've been out 16 days.
Mike: Where have you played so far?
Bob: Madison, Chicago, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, New York, Bridgeport,
Boston and here.
Mike: Who have you been playing with?
Bob: We've been headlining all the shows. Some of the bands we've played
with...we played with the Replacements in New York—they're another
Minneapolis band—and No Thanks, and the Young And Useless also. The
Proletariat were really good yesterday in Boston. Suburban Mutilation
in Madison—they're pretty wild guys, all nuts. We're going to open
for the Fall in Cleveland; that should be interesting. Also, we're
playing with Articles of Faith in Chicago on the way back. That's about
it. I thought the G.I.s were really good too. John was really funny:
"These Boots Are Made For Walking" was the greatest.
Bob Davis: What did you think of the show?
Bob: It was really cool.
Grant: Today was one of the funnest shows we've had.
Bob: Are you guys straight edge? No. Do you guys think Reagan's fucked?
No. Yeah. Well, no wait, yeah. Well, we don't want to kill him, but...you
know, what the new thing's going to be next year...Mondale Youth, Mondale
Punks Fuck Off.
Mike: What are your musical influences?
Bob: Like, when we started, we were listening to early punk. Now I listen
to a lot of 60s music, industrial music and jazz. I listen to all kinds
of music, but I don't listen to a lot of hardcore any more because when we
tour we seem to play with hardcore bands always, so I get enough of it on
the road.
Mike: Do you ever play with bands that aren't hardcore?
Bob: I wish we could. I think we're going to start trying to as much as
we can on the next couple tours.
Grant: I guess a lot of just rock and roll bands influence me. Not any
particular thing that strikes me, but a lot of different things.
Mike: What about bands playing now? Which ones do you like?
Bob: Right off the top of my head: Die Kreuzen from Milwaukee, Articles
of Faith from Chicago, No Thanks from New York, Tar Babies from Madison,
N.O.T.A. from Tulsa, Black Flag, Minutemen, Big Boys...I don't like any
British bands any more; I think they're all dumb. REM are great though.
Mike: What did you think of Land Speed Record?
Bob: It was something we had to do.
Mike: Why did you do it live?
Bob: A couple of reasons: We had just got back from a tour and we were real
hot and we were going to record the first gig back on a 4-track anyway.
When we were in SF we decided we should put out an album, and we had been
doing those songs for two years and there wasn't a lot more we could do
with them musically. So the record documents where the band was at the
time. I think it was a good thing to do early. I think had we done it now,
maybe it would be more popular or maybe we would get cut down for it.
I think it was a pretty daring effort in 1981 to put out a live hardcore
album, considering we didn't know we were hardcore until people told us.
We didn't know what it was until we went out on the first tour.
Mike: Do you still do those songs?
Bob: Yeah, we did about six of them tonight. We've got a couple hundred
songs, so we can pretty well pick and choose. We did those because this is
our first time out here and people probably are familiar with that album,
so we did a good portion of it so they could hear what was on the record.
Mike: How would you describe Everything Falls Apart?
Bob: It's us. Musically it's more proficient, the sound quality is better.
We're a lot happier with it. It's more diverse. It isn't locked into
hardcore. Well, there's some hardcore on it I guess, but the rest of the
stuff is what we're leaning towards now, a lot more melodical, a lot
stronger lyrically, and musically there's more rhythm to it, instead of
just speed for speed's sake—which is what Land Speed Record was,
no doubt about that.
Mike: What did you think of the sound quality on that record?
Bob: Shit. It sounds just like when you go to a gig and your ears are
blown off.
Mike: Would you like to have had it better?
Bob: I don't think so. I think it would have taken away from the effect
of it. It wouldn't have sounded like it was recorded live if we did it real
sterile.
Mike: What did you think of "In A Free Land?"
Bob: That was basically the sound that we always wanted. "In A Free Land"
was just trying to get there. Plus, that was a really good song which we
thought should be a single. The production is very good on it. We wanted
to get a single out and New Alliance had the bucks, so we did it. That was
the step we were going in at the time, and now we're going in a different
direction.
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Mike: What direction is that?
Bob: It's hard to describe. We did a couple longer songs tonight, a
little stronger, some people might say psychedelic, some people might
say...
Grant: Heavy metal.
Bob: Yeah, and some people might say post-hardcore. I don't know, it's
just what we're doing. We don't want it to stay sounding the same all the
time because people would get real bored if we just kept playing our
greatest hits.
Mike: How old are you?
Bob: I'm 22.
Grant: I'm 22 and Greg's 24.
Mike: How long have you been playing together?
Bob: Four years. We started in March of '79.
Mike: Are there any places to play in Minneapolis?
Bob: There's a bunch of places to play. I guess the biggest one is
First Avenue/Seventh Street Entry; they call it a downtown club. The big
room holds 1300 and 7th Street holds 350. The Upper Deck is smaller,
maybe 400 people. They got 600 in for Black Flag; I don't know how they
did it. They do some all-ages shows occasionally, like once or twice a month
like they do here, but it's like a split-show thing—the early show and
the drunk show. There's a place called the Whole Coffeehouse on the
University of Minnesota that does some shows...
Grant: We played one of those and it was really good.
Bob: There's an occasional hall show. Minor Threat is doing a hall show
next week maybe they'll pick up. We've done hall shows, but it's real
tenuous up there. You can't rely on people to show up because in
Minnesota there's a big drinking crowd. It's completely the opposite
from here.
Greg: Big beer country.
Bob: Yeah, most of the people who want to see us are our age and if kids
want to go they just get fake IDs; there's no hassle. There's no reason
to have a lot of all-ages shows.
Mike: What are some good bands up there?
Bob: Rifle Sport, they've got an album coming out on Reflex next month
called Voice Of Reason; Man Sized Action, they've also got an album
coming out on Reflex next month—I think it's called Claustrophobia.
Ground Zero are real good. The Replacements...
Greg: Loud Fast Rules.
Bob: Yeah, they're good. It's really hard to name them all because there's
tons of bands and we don't want to leave anybody out. There's been a lot
of new bands in the last year or so. The Barefoot And Pregnant
and Kitten compilations had a lot of new bands on them. But a lot
of bands on the tapes have broken up and reformed, so there's a whole new
crop of bands now. Other bands who are worth noting are Willful Neglect
and Propaganda, who are bands that we don't get to play a lot of shows
with, but are real good. As far as Reflex vinyl, we have to be real selective
because we don't have a lot of money to work with. It's not like our
parents are paying for it; it's financed totally by the money we made
from Everything Falls Apart. It is our money and we have to be
careful with it.
Mike: Have you ever thought of adding a singer?
All: We have three of them.
Mike: Well, someone who is just a singer.
Bob: When we started, that wasn't the trend. Now everybody has a guy who
takes his shirt off and runs around and screams. That's real good for people
it works for, but we can play and sing. It never crossed our minds to
have one. Sure, it would make it easier because we could play a lot faster
and tighter, but it wouldn't be much fun for us.
Mike: Are you guys vegetarians?
Bob: Sometimes. My favorite food is steak, but sometimes I'll go without
it for a week or so just for fun.
Grant: Or for lack of funds.
Bob: Yeah, that too. Sometimes I have to drink tea instead of coffee,
which is interesting because it makes me piss so much more than coffee.
It really cleans your system out.
Bob Davis: Do you think the second coming of Jesus is related directly
with the impending nuclear war and Soviet invasion of America.
Bob: I think it has a lot to do with the merger of RCA, MCA and A&M.
Jesus doesn't want to come back and have to open for, like, Lynyrd
Skynrd; he wants to do his own headlining tour.
Grant: He has nothing out.
Bob: Yeah, he has no records out.
Grant: There's that book he did, but that was 2000 years ago.
Bob: The book is one thing, but with all that word of mouth he'll have to
do arenas.
Greg: He's going to have to get something out.
Jesus, we're going to have to see some product.
Grant: We got a contract from Jesus the other day, and the stuff on his
rider...six nails...
Bob: And a bunch of two-by-fours. But what was so weird, he had all these
stage props, but all he wanted was a fish and a loaf of bread. I thought
he'd at least want a deli tray or something.
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