Permafrost

In Harm’s Way (Emperor Norton)
An interview with Ad Frank, Kevin Coombs, Adam Goodwin, Linda Pardee
by Sheril Stanford

They used to be Miles Dethmuffen and they’ve been called “the most underrated band in Boston.” People too dweeby to know better thought, hey! Deth! They must be hardcore! Or metal! Now they’re Permafrost, and they’ll have to live with the hair salon references. But think about that seemingly barren tundra in the Great White North. Did you know it is in fact fruitful, rich and teeming with life? Making sense yet? It’s also been said that, as Miles Dethmuffen, they lacked focus. Guess what? Not anymore they don’t. They’ve got a new disc out called In Harm’s Way on upstart Emperor Norton Records. Know what else? They lack nothing. See here.

So why the name change?
Linda: All four of us were in Miles Dethmuffen and we changed the name…

Adam: …because it was stupid.

Linda: I personally couldn’t say it anymore without retching. “What’s the name of your band? (mumbling, vomit sounds…).”

Ad Frank: I’d lie. I’d tell people it was Sno-Cone.

Kevin: I spent ten years telling people I was in Simple Minds.

Linda: A lot of people thought we’d be into hardcore, or metal or Goth.

Ad: Or that we’d be a blotto cover band.

So I guess you’ve known each other for a long time.
Ad: Yeah, we were together for a long time as Miles.

Linda: We met when we were young and gay…

Ad: And now we’re old and gay… Anyone who saw us early on or on an off night may remember us as a band that couldn’t stay sober long enough to play a 45 minute set. That’s more or less behind us.

Kevin: It wasn’t like we were strictly having problems because we were drinking or anything.

Linda: We just weren’t as good.

Adam: Yeah, I mean we did start playing before we were old enough to get into clubs. So it was kind of a big night out for us to go out and play. We’ve been playing together for a long time, and learning the ins and outs, and now we’re trying to get it together and figure out what we want to do and how to make it happen.

Ad: And we’re being harder on each other.

Adam: Also, our new album is coming out and it’s on a new label. We’re starting with a clean slate.

Who does most of the writing?
Adam: The lyrics are all Ad’s.

Ad: It’s really gray. Probably about half the songs are all done when I bring them to the band, but then everyone adds to it. Like on “We Are Not Friends Anymore,” it was just me strumming the chords and singing – it didn’t really become a song until Linda came up with the bass line. That’s when it really gels, when it becomes worth playing out or recording. So who wants to figure out who gets credit for doing what?

Adam: We don’t do math.

So what’s the deal with the song “Johnny Marr?”Ad (on his feet, speaking very seriously): Umm, he was a great guitar player who was very popular in the ’80s in a band called the Smiths. He went on to play with Paul McCartney, Chrissie Hynde and The The.

Well, duh! But is he, like, your childhood hero or something?
Linda: He’s the czar of everything that rocks!

I see. Okay. So who’s “Kurt Kokasik?”
Adam: That was a working title we kinda made up to a song that we decided sounded kinda like Nirvana and kinda like the Cars.

Ad: We thought about giving it a real title based on the words but…

Kevin: You know that song, “The One on The Floor?” We had the chord changes written on a piece of paper that was on the floor of the rehearsal space, and the name just stuck.

Ad: Plus, it kinda fit the lyrics.

And are you guys friends with Mary Lou Lord, or is she just another idol?
Ad: No, we just know her. And the story in the lyrics is true, and I liked the story cuz it talks about what a cool guy I am. And the chorus is actually a dream I had. She was incidental to the dream, but it took place in a subway and she was playing in the subway, and the chorus was what she was playing. When I woke up and realized it wasn’t one of her songs, I grabbed it.

Kevin: I guess dreaming songs is fairly common. I actually have a whole book about it,Written in My Soul. Supposedly being unselfconscious enough to write a song often occurs during that time when you’re half awake and half asleep. Pete Townshend said that’s why he wrote his best songs on heroin, because he was junked out, half awake, and he could write this really simple ditty that was at the same time a really great pop song. I’ve never been able to do that. The closest I’ve ever come was dreaming I could play a really great guitar solo. I woke up, and could actually play half of it. Unfortunately, it was “Tangerine” by Led Zeppelin…

Are you prolific, Ad?
Linda: No, he’s profane.

Adam: He’s profound.

Ad: Yeah, I write a lot. I don’t know how much of it is any good. I just rely on these three for that.

And are they honest?
Ad: If I give ’em one song every two weeks, they don’t have to say, “That one really sucks.” It’s more like, “We really like this one.”

Kevin: Yeah, we never have to say a song is really bad. We just work on the ones we’re really excited about. The ones you’re not, you leave ’til later.
You guys seem like you really like each other.

Adam: It’s all an act.

Linda: We know each other pretty well. Kevin and I went to school together. Ad was in school the next town over. We met up with Adam about a year later. We made him audition.

Were you doing original things in high school?
Linda: Oh, YEAH! It was VERY original!

Ad: It was dreadful, but original. So original that no one’s ever wanted to play anything like it before or since.

Adam: Yeah, but remember, we were all like 18.

Ad: We were no Hanson, that’s for sure.

Linda: I only started playing in high school. I played in the high school jazz band.

Ad: The tuba player in that jazz band hates her to this day cuz she stole all his parts.

Linda: I didn’t know he hated me! I couldn’t help it if I blew him away.

Kevin: I was in the jazz band a year after Linda.

Ad: That’s where he learned to play all those arpeggiated G9ths.

Kevin: Yeah, all those funky chords I never use.

Adam: I was a typical kid, banging on pots and pans. I took drum lessons starting in fifth grade. Drum corps stuff, high school band. I did a year in a hardcore band. We never really played out. I think we did one gig.

Linda: I saw it! I was there!

Adam: It was one of those typical all ages hardcore festivals.

Kevin: You were in the, uh, larvae form of what became SlapShot.

Linda: Baby SlapShot. No! SlapShot, Jr.

Ad: To this day, I see kids walking around Harvard Square with “Terminally Ill” T-shirts on.

Adam: Wish I had one. It was a big deal at the time. With Gang Green and DYS. All the big boys.

And how old were you?
Adam: I was 17 – still in high school.

Kevin: He had his hair cut just like Larry Mullen. Straight up on top. And I was trying to dress like Joe Strummer…

Ad: I started playing guitar when I was 15. I played sax before that. I’ve written as long as I can remember, like these stupid little kid songs. My cousins came for my birthday last week and bought me whiskey and made me sing a song I’d written when I was twelve, “I Am a Vampire Bat.” Goes to show you what I’ll do for a shot of whiskey.

Kevin: Not to be confused with the Wesley Willis bat song.

Ad: It was mostly ripped off from an Unnatural Axe song.

Tell me your three desert island discs.
Linda: One of my essential albums is Blondie’s Parallel Lines. It’s one of the albums I play to death. I think Deborah Harry is the balls.

Kevin: I think I’d go insane if I had to limit myself to three albums. Maybe
Sound Affects by the Jam. Or the Clash’s first album. But then again…

You two would make a good desert island pair…
Adam: Yeah. “Can I borrow your CD?” “NO! Listen to your own!”

Ad: I’d probably pick Music For A New Society by John Cale,Space Oddity and High Fidelity…

Kevin: Highbrow!

Linda: You’re kicked off the island!

Adam: At any given moment my three choices could change, but Quadrophenia is probably a good choice.

Ad: That’s a double album! No fair!

Linda: The last album I bought was the Austin Powers soundtrack. Good music.

Adam: I bought Sons of the Pioneers and the Carter Family, 1929 to 1930-something, now I’ve got the whole set, and the last Curtis Mayfield album, all in one spree.

Ad: I bought OK Computer.

Kevin: Sleater-Kinney, Dig Me Out.

This is why you guys are so cool, cuz you’re all over the map!
Kevin: Yeah, some people think that’s a problem. Music people like to put you into a nice little category so they can market you. That was a problem when we were Miles Dethmuffen – no one ever knew whether to file us under “M” or “D.”

At least that won’t be a problem now.

Ad: Yeah, I just started to rattle off names and Linda said, “No. No. No.” Until I got to Permafrost, and she said, “Yes.”

Linda: Well, HE wanted to name the band The Aimee Men. I wanted to call us the Squat Thrusts.

Kevin: Yeah. That was my favorite thing in gym. Ad actually took the word from a Magazine song. It’s “I’ll throw you down and fuck you on the permafrost.”

Have you got any tour plans?
Linda: We sure hope to.

Adam: Actually, we’re very anxious to get on the road. We have tentative plans for an East Coast tour starting in the fall. It’s taken us so long to get everything started, but now everything seems to have fallen into place