The Queers
Don’t Back Down (Lookout!)
An interview with bassist B-Face
by Scott Hefflon and Mark Phinney
After the letdown of Move Back Home, it’s so damn good to have The Queers return with an energetic record like Don’t Back Down (Lookout!), and pack ’em in for an all-out, all-ages show at the Middle East. Clean and sober, surprisingly enough, Joe King finally got back on track and put on an animated, fun show. The Queers were sportin’ the classic jean and T-shirt attire, and worked up quite a sweat beneath their ball caps. Jumping around, yelling/singing harmonies, and blasting through song after song from their catalog o’ punk rock classics, as well as the beautiful bubblegum ditties on Don’t Back Down. The mix of songs was good, the sound loud and clear, and those darn kids were boppin’ up a storm. “Fuck the World, I’m Hangin’ Out with You Tonight” and “Yummy Yummy Punk Rock Girls” were two of the closing sentiments. Cha-cha-cha!
This was one of your first shows to promote Don’t Back Down, how’d it go?
Well, the album came out the last week in August, and this is only our second show, but I think it went pretty fuckin’ well. Our first show was last night at Coney Island High in NYC. It was the Lookout! Showcase with The Smugglers, Cub, Pansy Division, The Mr. T Experience, us, and the Groovie Goulies, my favorite band in the whole world. It was for CMJ, so this is our real homecoming show in Boston. Portsmouth, NH will be, too.
Isn’t The Rat your regular club?
We’ve played both here and there, but we’ve played The Rat far more. Actually, a really interesting thing happened at the show last night; Lint (Tim Armstrong) from Rancid, Joey and Dee Dee Ramone came and saw us play. I couldn’t believe it. I introduced myself to them, and they were really cool. I’ve been going to see the Ramones for almost ten years, and I thought I’d never even get a chance to meet them, much less have them come and see us play. One of the original Beastie Boys was there too. I don’t think he’s still in the band, but he was in the punk Beastie Boys, which is all I give a shit about anyway.
How long is this tour and where are you going?
It’s a four month tour including the States, Europe, and Japan. It sounds really cool, but I can tell that by the end of the tour, I’m just going to want to go home. That’s usually the way it is though.
Didn’t you just finish a tour of Canada?
Yeah, and the States, too. We had Metal Murph (Sean Murphy of The Cretins) on guitar for that tour. Now we’ve got Eric Coleman from Indiana on guitar. We’ve gone on two tours with him before.
Didn’t he have something to do with The Smears?
He’s going out with one of The Smears, but she’s in another band now ’cause The Smears broke up.
How come you don’t have another full-time guitarist?
Because the band is just the three of us, we just take another guitarist out on the road with us to have an extra guitarist.
You had some guests on the new record.
Yeah, Lisa Marr from Cub sang “I Can’t Get Over You” and I think she wrote the lyrics. Hugh (O’Neill, drummer) did a little demo on there too. JJ Rassler, from Rounder Records who used to be in DMZ and then the Odds, has been friends with Joe (King, vocals and guitar) for years. He was in The Queers in the ’80s. He came up and helped produce the record, and helped with singing and stuff.
What are some bands, especially early on, that you were into?
When I first got into punk, I wasn’t listening to the MaximumRockNRoll shit because I wasn’t aware of the ‘zine. I listened to the Pistols, Ramones, Dead Kennedys, The Cramps, which I think are still some of the best fuckin’ bands. The Cramps are one of my all time faves. And the weird thing is, some of the bands I didn’t get into then I’m only now starting to really get into. Like The Dickies. I fuckin’ love The Dickies, but back then I hated them. And I can’t remember why.
What about new bands?
The Groovie Goulies, they’re fuckin’ excellent. The Pink Lincolns, The Crumbs, Boris The Sprinkler, Cletus, The Smugglers, The Hi Fives, Nobodys, and Showcase Showdown, my favorite Boston band. When I first heard Showcase Showdown’s Christmas record, “Merry Christmas, I Fucked Your Snowman,” I fuckin’ loved it. I mean, finally a Boston punk band with a sense of humor. And I suppose I should mention The Cretins. They’re loads better than they used to be. I can never think of good bands when someone asks. Did you know The High Fives broke up on stage? Up in New Hampshire, during the last show of the tour with us, and it really sucks ’cause they have a whole album’s worth of new material. They were going to record it as soon as they got home. They got in a fight on stage, and that was it. I was hoping they were going to go back home and regroup. The two guitarists/singers can do it alone, if they just get a drummer. They can play bass. The problem was between the bassist and the drummer. The band, from what I can see, is the two guitarists. I was really bummed ’cause they were just so good live.
Your new album sounds a lot tighter…
Yeah, it’s because we actually rehearsed it. The last one, Move Back Home, was written in the studio.
The last one still had the pace and the melodies, but something really seemed missing. Some energy or vitality just wasn’t there.
We spent a lot more time writing, rehearsing, and recording this one.
It sounds like you just recorded this one when you were in a better mood.
That’s exactly the case. If you could’ve seen what was going on behind the scenes last time… It obviously showed in the recording. This time, we were ready to make a record, and we were all really into doing it. It was fun again.
It sounds fun too. I’m really into the bubblegum girl music.
I like both. I like the really punk shit, but I like playing the bubblegum stuff too. I think Love Songs For The Retarded and Don’t Back Down have a good blend, a good mixture of the two styles. This one leans a bit more toward the bubblegum, but it’s not a full blown wimp record.
I think you’re really giving the all-age crowd something they can understand. Not only can they come out and sweat to your music, when Joe sings, “Fuck the world, I’m hangin’ out with you tonight,” they’re right in the same mind set.
Yeah, I can’t see a 15 year old getting into an ultra-political band like Propagandhi. In general, they wouldn’t even know what they’re talking about. If they’re into that, that’s cool too, but we’re the escape from that. When people come see us, I want them smiling and jumping around, not sitting back thinking, “Hmmm, that song had a strong, very serious message.”
What about the whole “rules of punk” debate?
There are no rules. That’s what it’s about. What’s worse than that is that the whole thing’s like fuckin’ high school. You’re wearing the wrong clothes, or you’re listening to the wrong music. What the fuck? Ten years ago, you could go up to another punk, no matter where you were, and you could talk to him. Now there are all these lines being drawn. My thing is to try to be as easy-going as I can, but that judgmental thing is exactly what I wanted to get away from in the first place. I don’t have to deal with it as much, but I feel bad for the kids that have to put up with that shit. I used to make my own clothes. I was considered a wacko back then, and I’d be considered a wacko now. Even by the punks.
Do you think people identify with you because you don’t play the whole punk fashion game?
I guess so. We never intended it to represent anything. But I’ve seen articles in ‘zines where they attack Rancid, who I happen think are fuckin’ great, because of what they wear, ’cause they show off, ’cause of their hair and studs and shit, and then they say, y’know, look at The Queers: they’re punk as fuck and they wear jeans and baseball hats. That’s just the way we’ve always been.
Lack of fashion can still be judged as a fashion statement. Both the simple look or the glam look can still be 100% punk if it’s done for honest reasons, and not just to be accepted.
I really get a kick out of people who are way into punk but don’t look the part. Some regular-looking guy on the street that you meet ends up being really into punk, and you thought he’d be into Springstein and shit. You don’t need to advertise it. But if you’re proud of what you listen to, there’s nothing wrong with showing it.
There’s also the initiation rites of getting your ass kicked for being a weirdo.
That happens in any scene, though. Some people think you’ve got to be way into it, or else you’re not really into it at all. I know people that the little kids in the gutter with the three-foot mohawks would never consider punk, but they know more about punk music than those kids will ever know. Whatever.
Didn’t you just film your first video?
For “Punk Rock Girls,” yeah. And MaximumRockNRoll has already given us the big “Fuck You” for it. They said we played the song four times, and it was only three, but we had to get all the camera angles and bullshit. And what the fuck? The show was advertised as a video shoot, and afterwards, we set up the rest of our shit and played a kick-ass fuckin’ set. But hell, it’s his ‘zine, so he can say whatever he wants. He’s supported us for years, so whatever. He was just bitchin’ because he doesn’t like videos. Hell, I still read his magazine. Mostly what bothers me is he slammed the other bands on the bill, when they had nothing to do with it. He said we were all sucking the corporate dick. We filmed it for Lookout!, not for MTV. It’s Lookout!’s business where the video actually gets shown.
I’ve always wondered, is it a conscious decision to make your album titles a sentence?
For the most part, yeah. The Queers Beat Off, The Queers Move Back Home, The Queers Grow up, and The Queers Don’t Back Down were intentional. I never thought about The Queers Love Songs for the Retarded. It’s supposed to be a bunch of love songs, for the retarded. But I guess it works, huh?
Why’d you name your new album after a Beach Boys cover?
I had nothing to do with that. I don’t agree with it, but what’s done is done. We had some good titles, but I can’t think of any right now.
