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Mission Statement |
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| June 2008 | ||
The Menzingers: From Local Gigs to Punk Rock Festivals
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Only a few years after forming, The Menzingers have been able to establish a solid fan base locally, release a debut album and play one of the largest punk rock festivals in the country, The Fest, which gave the band the opportunity to schmooze with some of the most established punk bands playing today. The Scranton-based band formed in 2005 and released its debut album, The Abuse of Information Technology, on the New York-based punk label Go-Kart Records in 2007. The album offers all of the heart and passion punk rock can contain when done well, but it also features a mash up of different styles. The tracks “Cold Weather Gear” and “Coal City Blues” are softer and folk-inspired, while the band’s cover of The Clash’s “Straight to Hell” and the album’s opener, “Alpha Kappa Fall Off a Balcony,” are explosive power-chord anthems that ignite forceful sing-alongs at the band’s shows. The band has also established quite a fan base in northeastern, Pennsylvania, due in part to the fact guitarist/vocalist Tom May, bassist Eric Keen and drummer Joe Godino had all played in the popular local ska/punk band Bob and the Sagets before forming The Menzingers. But the band mates agreed that they wanted to start playing a different style of music, especially since they started listening to different types of music. “We started listening to less ska, less reggae and less island music,” May says. “We listened to more rock and more punk and folk music.” Before the style change was complete, however, the band needed another ingredient: an additional guitarist and vocalist. May encouraged Greg Barnett to join the band, since he played in a ska/punk band with May’s brother. Shortly after receiving a phone call from May, Barnett became the group’s fourth member. Though The Menzingers lost some of the Bob and the Sagets fan base, which May says occurred in part because some of the people moved away and went to college, the band had no problems winning over new fans. The band still plays at several venues in the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre area, including Café Metropolis, a place Bob and the Sagets had also played frequently and a space that May still cites as his favorite local venue. Shortly after The Menzingers grew in popularity locally, Go-Kart became interested in signing the band. May says the band caught the attention of a writer for a punk rock website during a show in Philadelphia. The writer interviewed the band and told an editor at Punknews.org about the group, which eventually led to Greg Ross, Go-Kart’s owner/operator, finding out about the group. “We ended up meeting him [Ross] in Syracuse at a Wegmans. We sat down with a tray of pizza. He told us all kinds of stories and said he was going to give us a contract,” May explains. So far, the band has felt right at home with Go-Kart, a label that has released albums from Anti-Flag, G.B.H. and many other punk groups in the past. And shortly after signing to the label, the band recorded its album. The process of recording the album was intensive and often included thirteen-hour work days, according to May. “There wasn’t much fucking around at all,” he explains. “We sat around and played the tracks over and over again.” |
Menzingers' guitarist/vocalist Greg Barnett
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Menzingers photo courtesy of the band |
Coming from Bob and the Sagets, what made you want to create a band with different styles? TM: There was a member change. We stopped playing with Curtis. And we started listening to less ska, less reggae and less island music. We listened to more rock and more punk and folk music. Can you tell me when you guys officially started playing as The Menzingers? TM: Let me think about this for a second. It was the fall of 2005. |
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The process, he adds, did have its challenges, especially because the band had to deal with a power outage in the warehouse where the album was recorded, about five minutes outside of New York City. “We couldn’t cook there, and we couldn’t shower, so we spent about a week without showering,” May says. But the recording process was especially beneficial, he says, because Jesse Cannon produced the album. Cannon has worked with several influential bands, including The Cure and New Jersey punk rockers Lifetime. “It was cool because we went into Jesse’s control room. I probably bothered the shit out of him with recording questions, but he knew everything,” May says. Cannon also gave the band a crucial piece of advice when it comes to growing a fan base and improving as musicians. “He said play as many shows as you can because it’s practice every time you play a show. We realized that’s the only option we have: to play hard,” May says. Once the album was released, it did not take long for the band to establish a reputation beyond the Scranton area. In the fall, the band played The Fest, a large punk rock festival held in Gainesville, Fl. that also included The Lawrence Arms, Dillinger Four and several other bands. One of the highlights for May included meeting Alex Levine, the bassist for The Gaslight Anthem. The circumstance of the introduction is something May jokes about now. “They [The Gaslight Anthem] stayed in the same hotel as us. When I met the bass player, I was wearing an American flag and a speedo,” May recalls. “I walked into the hotel room, and I was real drunk. He said he was in The Gaslight Anthem. I was standing there in underwear and an American flag towel.” May adds that The Gaslight Anthem is one of his favorite bands, and he hopes to eventually tour with the band. May was also star-struck when he met one of the members from Against All Authority. “A guy from Against All Authority was running the stage when we played. We talked to him before we played, but none of us realized who he was,” May says. “He was rocking out while we played, and he later told us we have the best Clash cover he ever heard.” May also describes The Fest as a lot of drunken revelry and punk rock chaos. “Any business you went to, there were just punk kids fucking around. There was also a bunch of cops arguing with drunken kids everywhere,” he remembers. The band has also managed to play other parts of the country, including Alabama and North Carolina. And this summer, the band will go on tour with the pop-punk band The Leftovers, before returning to the studio to record a second album. When the band enters the studio again, the group’s sound will expand even more, according to May. The music is drifting toward a more rock-oriented direction, and May cites The Replacements as a major influence on the band’s current work. He also promises the album will include some more acoustic tracks. “Punk is kind of dead in a sense. There are still awesome punk bands, but all of the best bands are branching out,” May explains. “We’re just playing what we feel like playing. I’m not worried about anyone saying we’re not punk anymore. If they do, fuck them.” He adds that the band is currently writing the second album, and he hopes to demo it in the fall and start recording it at some point in the winter. More information about the band is available at: www.themenzingers.com For more coverage of The Menzingers, click here to read the full interview with Tom May. |
Menzingers' guitarist/vocalist Tom May |
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