The
Weaklings, The Chicken Hawks, New American Mob, The Viles
Satyricon,
125 NW 6th Ave., 243-2380 10 pm
Thursday, April 1, $5
Electric Frankenstein, Fireballs
of Freedom, The Watts
EJ''s, 2140 NE Sandy Blvd., 234-3535
10 pm Saturday, April 3, $6
Iowa's Chicken Hawks and New Jersey's Electric
Frankenstein are brothers in arms fighting for the soul
of rock 'n' roll. Lucky for us, the alignment of the planets
has ensured that both bands will hit Portland within days
of each other. WW seized the opportunity to see just
how well their twin powers activate. Chicken Hawks guitarist
Pete Phillips and Sal Canzonieri, guitarist of Electric Frankenstein,
spoke to us from their respective home states.
WW: Why should anyone give a shit about you?
PP: The Chicken Hawks, along with a handful of other
bands in America right now, are trying to revive rock 'n'
roll and make it real, exciting, fun, colorful, sexy and
decadent. We're trying to bring it back to the values that
we think it stands for, which are sex, good times, fast
living and stuff that teenagers can't find in any type of
pop music nowadays.
SC: That's easy. Because the way our songs are,
the whole idea about us is to keep rock 'n' roll alive.
So if you don't [give a shit], it'll die with us and everybody
else.
Aren't you too old to be doing this?
PP: Hell no, no way. Never. I'll be playing until
I'm dead. I've already played for 20 years, so I'll keep
playing another 20. I'm 30, and I started playing when I
was 10.
SC: No, because I think that the rock generation
has nothing to do with the "youth" thing. I think that's
a marketing convention that major labels do to use people
in the bands, to make them believe that you gotta be young.
When they're real young and naive, they can just stick 'em
on the road and make 'em whores for the major labels. The
labels are their pimps.
What's up with the name?
PP: We had heard of NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy
Love Association) before, but for some reason we didn't
know that chicken hawk was the slang for NAMBLA. Betsy named
the band after that little guy on Foghorn Leghorn. It's
a really innocent name. Seriously. It's just that little
guy that goes, "I'm going to go get me a chicken." The little
brown chicken hawk guy, Henry Hawk. That's why we named
the band.
SC: Rocket from the Crypt had just started, and
I was thinking, "Oh, like Rocket from the Tombs, who used
to be the Dead Boys." Then I remembered [the Dead Boys']
other band was called Frankenstein. Then I was thinking
"Electric" because of guitars--they're called electric Frankensteins
when you piece different ones together. Also, people who
were into the New York Dolls' whole gender thing were called
Frankensteins. At the same time, I found out that in Milan
there's a club called Electric Frankenstein.
Don't you think rock 'n' roll sucks?
PP: I'm passionately in love with rock 'n' roll
and believe in actually fighting for it and proving to people
that it still exists. The current state of rock 'n' roll
definitely sucks, absolutely. The only thing you can even
remotely connect to rock 'n' roll is Korn and Marilyn Manson.
This is the first generation of young people growing up
without rock 'n' roll. It's really fucking sad. We'd really
like to see things shift back to the way it was, when arenas
were filled with dope-smoking, vomiting teenagers listening
to really loud, irresponsible music. That doesn't happen
anymore. What can a kid listen to, Matchbox 20? No, they're
gonna go where all the hot chicks and the crime and all
the dope is, and that's rap. That's why so many white kids
listen to rap.
SC: Well, I think "alternative" music sucks, but
I don't call that music "rock." I can't even remember the
songs after they've finished playing the record. That's
totally different than when you listen to things where you're
younger, and you hear the first Damned album, or the Stones,
the Who, the Stooges. You put them on and never forget them.
I still don't.
What band would you pay to play with?
PP: No one. I won't pay to play. Ever. Anywhere.
For any reason. I mean, barring maybe the Stones in a stadium.
If you're talking about a club, no way, wouldn't do it.
SC: Monster Magnet. I love all that stoner rock.
(Laughs) It's just more fun to be at one of those shows
than one of those dumb shows where everyone slam dances.
Tuning--does it matter?
PP: About a third of the time we're hopelessly out
of tune, so it matters, but it's kind of a plateau to reach.
SC: I don't try to be super, super precise, but
it's crappy when everything sounds like a big sludgeball.
The thing about rock 'n' roll is that when everything's
set up right, it's got this ringing tone that goes through
your whole body. So you should at least be in a semblance
of tuning. We're doing songs like Black Flag used to do,
where there are jazz chords that make it sound dissonant.
You have to really know how to play so it doesn't sound
like crap.
Tell us about your most memorable show.
PP: Our first road trip in '95, we played a coffee
shop in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Back then we were really birthday
party-type crap noise. Loud, loud, loud, loud. We played
at a hippie coffee shop, and people were just fleeing and
panicking. Betsy was hopping up and down wearing a full
cat suit.
SC: We just played a show in Costa Mesa where it
was sold out, lines around the block. We played brand-new
songs from the new album, and everyone started screaming.
Then girls started taking off their bras and throwing them
at us. (Laughs) That was pretty good.
A good rock 'n' roller puts out (blank) number of records
a year?
PP: Boy, I would say one.
SC: A good one puts out something every three months,
or people forget about you really fast. There are so many
crappy bands that in order for you to push them out of your
way, you have to put out a lot of records. What do we have?
Like 25 records? We've sold over 75,000 copies.
Describe your lust for life.
PP: Our kitties, Nico and Patti, touring and WOW!
potato chips.
SC: Pretty much a great song and how that vibrates
out to everything else I do.
What do you think of ... Electric Frankenstein?
PP: We like Electric Frankenstein. I would say This
Is Now is one of the top 10 records of the '90s.
... and the Chicken Hawks?
SC: They're really good. Pete used to call me, but
then I moved.
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Willamette Week | originally
published March 31,
1999
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