The Vandals / page 2

RACHEL: umm… With the song “Get a Room” – in my zine I do this section called “This Could Be You” and it’s about kids making out at shows, I was wondering if there was a specific incident…  
JOE:  Do you get pictures of them making out at shows?  
RACHEL:  Yeah  
JOE:  Is it here?  
RACHEL:  I was wondering if there was a specific incident that inspired you to write that song?  
JOE:  Nah… just constant, you know, you see, we all see it. (Joe finds page in zine, holds it up and asks random dressing room passerby) This could be you!?  
JIM: Who am I macking? I am the mac daddy.  
JOE:  Jim bitch  
JAKE: About “That Darn Punk,” actually I just got it in the mail today. Your wife sent me the sound track and I actually contacted her, asked could she send the movie so I could review them together and I haven’t watched it yet so. . .  
JOE: well you’re in for a real treat guy.  
JAKE:  Could you give me a little idea of what it’s about?  
JOE: It’s about a guy whose in a band and he cheats on his girlfriend and then all the bad Karma that he’s build up comes back to him while stuck in the desert trying to get home. The end. I don’t want to give away the end though.  
JAKE: Okay, I’ll find that out soon enough.  
JOE:  But there’s a lot of good music in it.  
JAKE: Yeah I listened to the soundtrack, I haven’t had a chance to watch the movie yet.  
JOE:  What do you think of the soundtrack?  
JAKE:  I like it.  
JOE:  I think it’s good.
JAKE: It’s pretty fun.  
JOE:  I defy you to some up with a better soundtrack.  
JAKE:  okay.  
JOE: I defy you!  
JAKE: You would . . . You’ll win.  
JOE:  I defy you! Try it. Go ahead and try. You know why? Cause most soundtracks have a bunch of favors done to certain people on them, stuff that doesn’t fit, like the director’s brother’s band. Stuff like that. There’s none of that on this soundtrack I tell you! 
JAKE:  None of those bands are your friends’ bands or your brother’s friends.  
JOE:  The director of this movie had no say in the soundtrack. He didn’t get to choose anything. He needs to stick to directing films.  
JAKE:  Just you and your wife basically?  
JOE: Just me.  My wife – she approves things. Mostly just looks for new bands and stuff like that. Yeah, usually I run everything by her.  
JAKE: (turns to me) You were going to ask about bigwig.  
RACHEL:  Oh yeah, I heard bigwig was going to do their next record with Fearless.  
JOE: Yeah, what’s up with that?!?!  
JAKE:  Uh oh, he doesn’t . . .  
JOE:  No it’s true, no it is true. They’re also changing their name to stupidwig. :::::Joe laughs a lot::::: They should.  
RACHEL: Is there some bad blood there?  
JOE: No, they’re a great band, they’re just umm. their names shouldn’t be bigwig,  it should be stupidwig.  
RACHEL: So you wanted to put out their next record?  
JOE: umm… yeah if it’s good. I haven’t heard it, but I think they’re a great band. But some great bands aren’t, you know, kids are weird, they just do weird things that are not in their best interest. In my opinion, but actually they don’t think that either. They’re just like . . . . It’s a long story and it makes some people look bad if I tell the whole story and the people it makes look bad - it’s not me of course cause it’s my version of the story, and it’s not bigwig. They’re nice people, very loyal to old friends, but just [I’m] totally puzzled; scratch my heard “hmm.” At the same time we have other bands that are not so stubborn. I don’t know if you’re call it stubbornness.  
JAKE: They did old stuff with Fearless.  
RACHEL: Yeah they had their first record with Fearless.  
JOE: yeah Fearless asked us to buy it from them and put it out. So we did, and then they said umm. . . 
RACHEL: Their second record, they asked you to buy?  
JOE: The second record yeah cause the guy was in a bind and he wanted up to help, and then as soon as he got back on his feet starts snooping around again after we’ve developed that band and put a bunch of money into them all of a sudden he’s snooping around trying to throw some weird money around trying to get them back. Where does he get that money? E-music. Who are the e-music people?  
JAKE: They just gave him money to get more bands?
JOE: They invested in his label or something like that.  
JAKE:  Oh really?  
JOE:  That’s what I understand. I don’t know if that’s true but. . .  
JAKE: I guess dot-com’s have a lot of money--the ones that aren’t sinking.  
JOE: They used to. So if you want to go into the dot-com invested backed record labels go right ahead, but you should watch CNBC for a couple days and then rethink that.  
RACHEL: Okay on a different note, the golf magazine, that you do, SWING! I heard that you did a golf tournament last year, but I hadn’t heard anything about it last year. I didn’t know what charity it was for or . . . ?  
JOE:  The charity is called My Friend’s Place. They help get Hollywood street kids off the street. And then they’re just called Hollywood kids. Haha . . . yeah.
RACHEL: Who won the tournament?  
JOE:  The winner of the tournament I think was [someone] from the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies.  
JAKE: Oh, it was all musicians?  
JOE: No, but a lot of them.
JAKE: So we’ve done it two times. This year it’s in Las Vegas.  
RACHEL: Was the turn out good?  
JOE: Sold Out  
JAKE: Who's playing this year?  
JOE: Not sure, I haven’t looked. The price went up. The charity thing got out of control, it was like fifty dollars when we did it last year. Now it’s like five hundred dollars so it’s a different kind of people playing but a lot more money is going to the charity.  
JAKE: Is it still musicians?  
JOE: Mostly, yeah.  
JAKE:  Just kind of mixes up though?  
JOE:  It’s mostly musicians and then a lot of just golfers. People that like wild wacky golf weekend, or if they think there’s going to be some good looking girls in bikinis there because they’ve seen it in a magazine sometimes.  
JAKE: I wanted to ask you about bull fighting. I don’t know the details be she had e-mailed me a link about your picture on the website.  
JOE: Yeah, sure. Any questions?  
JAKE: I don’t know anything about it  
RANDOM PERSON:  What’s your record?  
JOE:  What’s my record? 3 and 0.  
JAKE: And would 1 mean that the bull killed you?  
JOE: yeah I think so, yeah, yeah.  
JAKE: Oh okay, so if you win it’s that the bull didn’t kill you basically?  
JOE: No, you don’t really win a bullfight. You just perform and they judge you and you get an award based on how well the judge thought you did.  
JAKE: Do you bullfight in America or Mexico?  
JOE:  It’s illegal to do it in America so I am forced by my oppressive government to travel to foreign nation to pursue my hobby–my passions. It’s, it’s kinda like pot smokers, they have to go to Netherlands.  
JAKE:  Amsterdam  
JOE:  Yeah, Yeah. But some day they’ll be so many Mexicans in the United States that we’ll just change all the laws, but for right now I have to go to Mexico.  
JAKE: Or at least the West Coast I guess right? I mean as far as changing the laws.  
JOE:  Oh we’ll take over the whole country I think.  
JAKE:  Okay  
JOE:  We’re gonna try.
JAKE:  So how did you learn if it’s not allowed in this country? Did you have to go to Mexico to learn?  
JOE: No, I learned in San Diego. There’s a school in San Diego but some animal rights organizations were always trying to shut them down, saying it should be illegal to teach it cause it’s illegal to promote bull fights, like a concert promoter would promote a bullfight. They were saying, I guess there’s some California laws, so they tried to say that teaching it was like promoting a bullfight. But it didn’t really fly. You’re allowed to teach bullfighting just don’t kill a bull. It’s like saying you couldn’t teach the art of smoking marijuana or whatever. You could teach whatever you want. So you gotta do it in Mexico. I’ve killed three bulls in Mexico, and if you’re a vegetarian or vegan it might seem weird to you but people kill bulls, steers, and cows everyday – millions of them. Very few people actually go out there and do it themselves. People want some one else to do it and they want to go to the butcher shop and have it. They don’t even want to go to the butcher shop, a lot of people, they just want it cooked first and presented to them with a bun covering it--sometimes they are so squeamish. But I actually go and kill it and I don’t usually eat the bull myself, but the butcher comes, cuts it up, and he sells it. There’s some myths that he throws it away cause it’s too tuff and that’s not true, they don’t throw away anything in those countries. And then there’s another myth that it gets given away to the orphanage – that’s not true either, they sell it to the butcher.  
(knock on the dressing room door)    
RANDOM PERSON:  What about the myth that the testicles go to the victor?  
JOE: No  
RANDOM PERSON: Okay well that’s the one I’d heard a lot.  
JOE:  No . . . If you get a real good performance they cut off an ear for you. And you get an ear and then you walk around the ring with your ear. Sometimes I get an ear, sometimes I don’t.  
JAKE: Umm. . . Does the bull always die?  
JOE:  No it doesn’t always die. 99% of the time the bull dies but if the bull is so good and performs so well, and just keeps going, and it’s gonna go forever–cause what doing, you’re timing it to where the bull stops. At a certain point the bull figures out the game and starts getting the matador. So what you’re trying to do is time it. By the time the bull gets tired and figures out the game and he’s gonna get you, he doesn’t want to charge anymore. You’re done, you’ve done everything you can do and then he’s trying to kill you. But fs you don’t--if he’s going on forever and he’s just doing great, the audience will insist that you set him free and its called an indulto [sic] and then he goes out to pasture. They dress his wounds, he becomes a legend, and the little kids just go out and talk about him.
JAKE:  Oh really, so it’s a big deal?  
JOE: Yeah it’s a huge deal.  
JAKE: So it’s very rare?  
JOE:  Yeah very rare. Everyone knows, you know, and if you have one, and then after that the rancher takes a trip around the ring and everyone throws roses at him cause he raised such a great bull and then that bull becomes even more valuable because it can be a seed bull for other generations.  
JAKE: Have you ever seen that happen?  
JOE: Twice. Once in Columbia and once in Tijuana.  
JAKE: What made you want to get into bullfighting? Did you happen to watch it once and you were . . .  
JOE:  No it was when I was a little kid growing up in Los Angeles or south of Los Angeles, more like and hour and a half away from Mexico. So we would go, when I grew up it was common to go to the bull fights every year, and then it became kind of not politically correct, but people are still going and the Mexicans and the Spaniards are still. . . . It’s huge–bigger now that ever. More bullfighting tickets are sold now then at any time in the history of bullfighting and what the Spaniards say is there’s more bullfighting tickets sold each year than any other spectator sport in the world except for soccer. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but that’s what they say. So it goes along and millions of people are fanatical about it. And I grew up in a Mexican household, where it was always pretty normal to us, but I didn’t know you learn it yourself and then one day I found the school on the internet and I started just going down there and then I trained in Los Angeles.  
JAKE: That’s really cool. umm. . .  
JOE: Change the question.  
RACHEL: I know you have a law degree. . What spawned your interest in doing that, like instead of just going to school for liberal arts?  
JOE: umm . . . I just thought I should, like it was one of those things I was expected to do when I was a little kid  
RACHEL: Was your dad a lawyer?  
JOE: No, but he always thought I should, you know, and then I never did, and then one day I said you know what I better go do something with my life, and that’s kinda like what everyone in law school is like – people who are kinda like they have no idea what they want to do with their life, and they do well on tests, but that doesn’t mean they know what to do with their life. So they’re like oh I’ll go to law school and that gives you three more years to figure that out. Then most people find out they don’t like the job or . . . you know?  
RACHEL:  When you finally went to law school was it with an intention of helping out bands? 
JOE:  No. I was going to be a prosecutor. Maybe put some bands in jail.  
JAKE:  Like Stupidwig.  
JOE: Like Stupidwig . . No. I love Stupidwig, they’re a great band – still a great band, but umm.. . they don’t even deserve to go to jail. But umm . .. I was gonna, yeah be a prosecutor–my sister is a prosecutor–then I had to borrow so much money to go to law school I couldn’t even pay back the loans by being a prosecutor so I went to work for a television network [which] paid a lot of money.  
JAKE:  I was actually gonna ask you since this is kind of related–what day jobs do you have right now? I know you’re working with Kung-Fu and . . .  
JOE:  I’m basically at Kung-Fu all day long and everyday.  
JAKE:  That’s pretty much your day job now?  
JOE: Yeah.  
JAKE:  What about the other guys in the band? I mean it’s been years since I saw the video that told me that.  
JOE:  Yeah it’s pretty much the same thing. Dave has an alcohol distribution company, Warren produces bands and stuff like that and the Josh is you know–A Perfect Circle, or Guns & Roses.  
RACHEL: umm . . . I heard you were set to Headline Warped Tour this year (2001).  
JOE: yeah we’re on the bill, I don’t know if we’d call it headlining but, we’re one of the bands playing the whole tour.  
RACHEL: Yeah I know also, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes is going too.  
JOE: Yeah.  
RACHEL:  And you had played with them at one time. Do you think there’s a chance you’ll play with them at all during the tour?  
JOE: umm . . . No, I asked to play with them and they wouldn’t let me. They want Warren to play for them so I think Warren might play for them.  
JAKE:  Are they always rotating members?  
JOE: Not a lot.  
JAKE: Oh, cause I don’t know that much about them, but I know Fat Mike used to be in them. Is he still? 
JOE: Yeah.  
JAKE: That’s all I ever knew.  
JOE: Yeah Warren’s going to play with them, so they should, since they’re having Warren play with them, this should mean that they should change their name to Me First and the Stupids ::HA::HA::HA:: . . . just kidding.  
JAKE: I was gonna say, not influences, cause I know that’s not a question you want to answer, but what are you guys listening to currently like say in your tour bus, your tour van or whatever?  
JOE: There’s a band called Ozma that we like–new band–OZMA. they’re on the soundtrack album.  
JAKE: Yeah, she was just saying that they opened for Weezer.  
JOE:  Yeah, yeah.  
JAKE:  Is there anybody else you guys are really into? Like you’re listening to a lot.  
JOE: umm . . . I like NOFX, and Lagwagon, Bad Religion, Social Distortion, bands like that. Uh.. the rest of the guys it’s hard to say but that’s a good enough answer. I don’t know about those guys.  
JAKE: Okay, just curious.  
JOE: Oh, I know Dave just bought some electronic record by some guy named something 606.  
JAKE:  Kid 606?  
JOE: Kid 606, yeah! That’s what Dave’s listening to right now.  
RACHEL: I read on your FAQ page that your first show was probably 81, what’s it like to have . . .  
JOE: 81 or 82?  
RACHEL: it said 81  
JOE: I might have lied.  
RACHEL: It said 81 in the beginning of the sentence and 82 at the end, but what’s it like to have been around for like 19 years?  
JOE: Yeah, it just keeps going, but if we stop people go, “Hey how come you’re not doing that anymore?!? Don’t you want to do that again?!” and this way we just keep doing it.  
RACHEL:  Well, a lot of people drop out you know.  
JOE: Yeah, I dunno people don’t figure out how to . . . We’re all pretty flexible, so we figure out how to make it work for us.  
JAKE:  Actually, related to the old stuff, do you play old songs like back from when you were drumming and the other guys weren’t in the band? Do you guys play those songs anymore?  
JOE: Rarely, because the people that come and demand those songs are the people that we’re trying to drive out of the audience anyway. They should go back and just forget about it cause if they bought new music . . . they don’t . . . they’re people who don’t buy records. Every one of them. Down to the very last one. They don’t know who The Ataris are, most of them don’t even know who Lagwagon is. And they just keep, they come to shows and they say play Pat Brown, play Pat Brown, and you play Pat Brown and most of the other kids are just kind of bored by it. Cause to me it’s not as good. It means a lot and it’s historical, but it’s not as good as the rest of our music so most kids notice it right away. Like, “this sounds different.”  
JAKE:  So you think a lot of the newer kids don’t even have the older albums?  
JOE: Yes.  
JAKE: So they’re kind of like “what is this song?”  
JOE: Yeah. You think it’s gonna be this great thing cause five or six people are just yelling for this same song all night long. Finally you break down and play it and it’s only those five people that really wanted to hear it. And then to me it’s totally noticeable – the energy just dies. It’s not like if we play these songs the place will erupt in excitement for the old days, it’s the total opposite, and if you ask those people if they have any of our new records: No they don’t. So why would you reward someone who won’t buy your new records? Let them go home and play the record and if they want to get into new music then they can come back and buy our new records, and buy other bands new stuff. Then later when we get really pathetic maybe we can play in Las Vegas or something. They can come and see us at the Whiskey Beats Lounge.  
JAKE:  Actually I think that’s funny because to me, since I know you guys don’t play here often and this is where I live, I was curious if you played the old songs just because that’s how long it’s been. I’ve been listening to you guys since I was in middle school and have all your albums and I was curious if you played old songs. I guess it’s so different, there’s rarely that there’s people like me who continue I guess.  
JOE:  Yeah, Yeah (the ATARIS start to play in the background.)  So yeah we should wrap this up too so I can watch the Ataris. How much more questions do you got?  
RACHEL: I have a few  
JAKE: I’m cool she’s . . .  
RACHEL: On the same topic, how does it feel to be interviewed by someone who was born the year you first started playing.  
JOE:  Oh it happens all the time. I mean its people like you that keep all this going. Again if I were being interviewed by some one my own age there’s something wrong with that person. What are they doing with their fanzine and they’re 38 years old.  
RACHEL: One more question:  When we first got the interview I was a little intimidated because of the [interview off limits] FAQ questions [on your web page] and it seemed like you try to get us to ask you about a lot of interesting stuff that you do even aside from the band, so I was just wondering what it is that you hope to get from doing an interview?
JOE:  Oh it doesn’t mean don’t ask a question about the golf magazine [or other things listed]. It means don’t ask that one because you already have the answer to that.  
JAKE:  I think it just made us a little nervous cause I actually brought it with me because the way Mitch [from Nitro] said it he was kind of like, “Don’t ask those questions!”
JOE: Yeah, no you read that so you don’t have to ask that question–you can ask a follow up. I haven’t looked at that thing in awhile but if it says like here’s the answer to a question that everyone asks, so now you have that answer, maybe you have a more informative way you can follow-up. It’s like you’re going to get a follow up question rather than just the same old thing. Like how’d you get the name for your band or whatever. It makes a better interview for you because your interview can be different from other people’s, not just the same thing that everyone already knows. Those aren’t taboo subjects.  
JAKE:  That was the impression I was under which is why I was a little nervous at writing my stuff down.  
JOE: No, we’re not sensitive about those, they’re just to make a better interview.

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