185 Miles South
A hardcore punk podcast.
185 Miles South
41. Jim Callahan (Ill Repute)
This week I'm joined by the original bass player of Ill Repute, Jim Callahan. We talk about getting into punk, meeting the IR guys, all the recordings and more. Jim is a great interview with a slightly different perspective from the others so this is a good listen. All Hail our Ill Repute lords!!
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What's up, everyone? Today we have the mighty, mighty Jimmy Callahan from Ill Repute. Original bass player and all-around awesome dude. If you want to support the pod, please like, rate, review, subscribe, wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, please consider becoming a Patreon. It's patreon.com slash 185milesouth. You can donate a small monthly amount. That helps out the podcast immensely. You can also go to paypal.me slash 185 miles south and donate that way. Thank you for all the ongoing support. It is much appreciated. And let's go on with today's episode. Jimmy Callahan, Ill Repute.
UNKNOWN:Ill Repute.
SPEAKER_00:185 miles south a hardcore punk rock podcast
SPEAKER_02:yeah today we got jimmy callahan bass player of ill repute hello hello hey so i'm pretty excited now i will have done all the original repute members now What do you mean by done? Well, interviewed everyone on the pod. Oh, yeah, yeah. I haven't done any of you
SPEAKER_01:guys. Well, I don't know. I mean, you never know what the kids are talking about these days.
SPEAKER_02:That's right. That's right. No, but it's been a pleasure. And now I just got to, well, we're going to call Chuck tomorrow night.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02:And then I got to get Lipke, and I got to get Josiah. So,
SPEAKER_01:Nishiah.
SPEAKER_02:Nishiah.
SPEAKER_01:Where is Nishiah? I don't know. Isn't he still in Santa Barbara? Did he move? Well, he was in Carpinteria. Okay. And then, yeah, I don't know. I haven't... And then what about Liebke? I have no idea. Is he still... They still have him locked up or they let him out? Did he go to jail? Oh. What?
SPEAKER_02:What? He went to jail? Who? What? Who said what? I thought it was just the mental institution. Not really. Yeah. They're going to shut down Seesucky and turn it back into a mental spot just for Liebke. But no, and then I can finally check off a whole band. It'll feel good. So... The
SPEAKER_01:whole band, all 15 of them. Hey,
SPEAKER_02:it was a good bunch. So let's start with how did you meet all the guys from the band? You all
SPEAKER_01:went to Whiting Me High. Yeah, well, John I met first when I first moved here. I moved on the Navy base in Port Hueneme. And you were how old? I was 12. Okay. It was the summer of 1974. And John lived across the street from me. And so him and his, I hung out more with his older brother. John was a year younger, but it seemed like he was a lot younger. Sure. Somehow, you know, at just that transitional stage, I think we were starting to get a little hair on our balls and stuff. And I don't think he did for another four or five years after that.
SPEAKER_02:That's like Ryan Fredette. He
SPEAKER_01:hit puberty like when he was 16. Yeah. But yeah, so I met John and used to hang around with his brother Mike mostly and then went to EO Green. And that's where I met Tony. He was sat next to me in our algebra class. And so we, you know, just Tony, we kind of knew each other. And John, we would... When he got into seventh grade, we'd walk to school together. We'd ride our unicycles to school sometimes, me and John. We had a little thing. He was so small. Like you said, he didn't reach puberty until he was 16, so we all had unicycles. I used to be able to put him on my shoulders, and we'd both be juggling. Holy shit. Not just junior high like that, but just around the neighborhood. But we would ride our unicycles to school and people would throw stuff at us.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that would be one way to have the essays not mess with you. You would just think you're a psycho. Who are those guys on the unicycle juggling? Don't fuck with
SPEAKER_01:them. So then didn't meet Carl until high school. Went to Winnie Mee High. And then Carl... And Tony, and then there was a whole group of us that all just ended up being friends, and then John came the next year, and we were all high school buddies.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and outside of music, Carl would say that you two were into sports a lot.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I played football, and Carl was on the football team, and he loved baseball, and I don't know how long he actually played, but I know he played a couple years at high school, and played football all four, and So yeah, I met him in there as well. Are you still a sports fan? No.
SPEAKER_02:There's no teams that you follow or anything?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I like the women's soccer. I like watching that. And I like watching some women's golf, too. I've been noticing I've been watching some of that lately.
SPEAKER_02:Sometimes I enjoy women's softball.
SPEAKER_01:Women's softball? Well,
SPEAKER_02:it's so fundamental,
SPEAKER_01:right? Right, right. I like it. But I'm not really much of a sports guy. I like the competition every once in a while, but I don't have a team. I'm glad my kids didn't want to play football. Well, now with all the CTE stuff. Even back then. Well, yeah, but now we know about it. Yeah, yeah. I kind of knew. I felt it. Maybe not so much in my head, but the rest of my body. Sure. But, yeah, you could just tell. Banging your head a million miles an hour, day after day after day. It can't be a good thing.
SPEAKER_02:You're like... This is unsafe. I need to get in a 1980s punk rock. That's
SPEAKER_03:exactly. I need
SPEAKER_01:to get in a pit. Use all this knowledge I've gained from football. Yeah. So what year do you guys graduate high school? 1980. Me, Tony, and Carl. And then John. John was the class of 1981. I'm not going to say he graduated.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but then he spends all of 81 in San Diego, so you're not a band yet.
SPEAKER_01:No, we're not a band. We were getting into punk rock. I remember it was probably the summer of 1980, somewhere around there, where John had these records, and we were at our friend Eric Edisvold's house, and he's like, hey, check this out. He had Sex Pistols and the Dickies Yellow record. And we were all, what the hell is this? Oh, my God.
SPEAKER_02:Did anything stand out to you more than others? Or was this all awesome and new? It
SPEAKER_01:was all new. It all kind of sounded the same. Because you never heard just held out bar chords, strumming bar chords. It's like, what is this? And then you hear the vocals. And it was just kind of like, oh, my God. I've never even imagined anything like this. Because we were listening to Boston. Sure. Foreigner. 70s rock. 70s rock. That was what the cool kids did, at least at our high school or whatever. So then, you know, but it's kind of like, you know, you listen to it, but it's kind of, you know, you can never imagine yourself really being part of it. Of course not. Or whatever. And then all of a sudden you hear this and you're going, wow, this is like people like us doing... doing this and you know why don't you know let's go check this out see what it's all about
SPEAKER_02:yeah so you start going to shows as friends before you're a band
SPEAKER_01:yes okay yeah started going to shows and uh I think it was the first one. It was like me, Tony, John, Eric Edisfald, and maybe one or two other guys. And then we'd meet more people, and more people started getting into the scene. And then we'd just all pile in the back in Tony's El Camino and
SPEAKER_02:head down or whatever. You'd ride in the back of the El Camino to LA? Oh, yeah. To LA. Oh, yeah. Is there shows here at all? Do the Rotters play
SPEAKER_01:locally? No. I think they were already broken up and everything. Oh, they weren't even... Yeah, because
SPEAKER_02:they just did the two 7-inches when I was a rap, right? Yeah. So it was 7-inches. They
SPEAKER_01:were all off to college or whatever it was they did then. John introduced us to punk rock. He had his friend Tom Niemeyer. He's in The Accused. He was from Oxnard. He moved up there. But he knew John from the beach, or John knew him from the beach, and he let John borrow the records, and he brought them over to us. We were like, yeah, this is cool.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So... Yeah, is there any other early shows that stand out to you? Early shows?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, God. I don't know, it's hard. Okay, one early show I remember was, I'm pretty sure it was X at the Starwood. Okay. And, you know, the pits were crazy then. I mean, it was just, it was mayhem. I mean, you had to really protect yourself and be aware of whatever. There was no circle, it was just every direction. So, you know, it just... I was watching and all of a sudden I see everyone like on the ground or looking on the ground. And I walk over and see what they're, it's fucking John Phan. I was laying passed out on the ground. Like, oh my God. So I pick him up and pull him out. Apparently he had stage dived and caught someone's shoulders and slammed his head on the, on the ground. So I do remember that. How many people do you think the Star Wars holds? I'd say a couple hundred, maybe 150. Yeah, and this is packed. It's usually packed, because it was like Tuesday night was punker night, and they had the disco with Rodney on one part in the bar part, and then they had a little room with the stage and everything for the punk bands. Oh, so cool. Yeah, I mean, we had no idea what we were witnessing. We were just from Port Hueneme, Hueneme High School, and the next thing you know, here we are in the big city going, holy fuck, what's all this going on?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. Do you and Tony start working on songs together before you get Carl while John is still away?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, before we got Carl. I remember when we first did it, Tony wrote a song, and I'm pretty sure it was I Won't Kill For You. So I was originally going to sing, and Tony was going to play guitar, and then we didn't know the rest of the band yet. But I remember Tony would come over to my house with his little probably 15-watt combo amp, and we'd plug the guitar in one jack and the microphone in the other jack out of the same amp and just do two or three songs, whatever. We still
SPEAKER_02:did that in the year 2000, so don't feel bad.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yes, we do. I like it like that. I really do. Maybe not like that, but I like DIY, just whatever... You've
SPEAKER_02:got to make it work with what you
SPEAKER_01:have. It's amazing. And just for me personally, and I think that might be why this has stuck with me, but I was never into the quality. I mean, you probably could tell, of course. But our thing wasn't really about... You know, how good we were or anything like that. It was more of the event of playing live. Yeah, and the energy. The energy and stuff. It wasn't so much about, you know, let's be the best musicians we can be. But the
SPEAKER_02:songs do end up being pretty well thought out by the LP. I mean, you wrote Boog in his cover, so you can't say you don't care about writing a perfect song. There's no bridge. Yeah, so that one didn't need it. Huh? That one didn't
SPEAKER_01:need a bridge. Well, one of our songs do need a bridge. Yeah. Which one of our
SPEAKER_02:songs has a bridge? Well, I mean, that's what makes the repeat so interesting. Like, the writing.
SPEAKER_01:Because we didn't know what a bridge was.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you can just go with where the song takes you. There's no, like, nailed down formula. Well, it was pretty much... YOLO. Huh? The YOLO formula. The only ones. Just lay it out there. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus. Yeah. Chorus, verse. Yeah, so... Talk about getting John and Carl in the band. So
SPEAKER_01:I can't remember if Carl was first or John. But for Carl, he always played with his brother in a rock and roll cover band. He was already a drummer musician guy. You're right. He was already a drummer musician guy. He could play. And there's... I think it's still true now. There's not that many drummers. There's more of everything. If you're a drummer in town here, I think you're in like five bands just because you have to be. Yeah, but old and hardcore seems like there's so many drummers floating around. They just never stay in the band the whole time, except for Carl. But we didn't know any of those guys. Sure. So we just knew who we knew. Sure. And we knew Carl would practice with his brother. quite a bit in their garage. So, you know, we begged him, hey, can we come over and we'll just, we'll play. When you guys are done, whenever you guys are done, we don't want to, you know, we'll play and you can just bang on the drums so we can hear what it sounds like with drums. Yeah. And he finally said, okay. And so he started playing drums. Yeah, because we had to beg him. He didn't want to do it. He's like, I don't like this. You know, this is, I don't like the way this is, but anyways. So then, and then John was going to come play bass. He hadn't moved to San Diego. He was living down in Coronado. And he came back up and pretended like he couldn't play bass so he could be the singer. And so then I had to play bass. And then John was the singer. Like it should have been, you know, forever anyways. But yeah, so then that was the band. And we kind of like told ourselves with the band, it wasn't like... I was thinking about this, why did we form the band and stuff? And it wasn't really more to make music or be rock stars. I know it wasn't that. It was more like to... To express our part in the struggle. We were part of the struggle. And it was just a way to say F you to society and all that. Because it deserved it at the time.
SPEAKER_02:How do you think the band would have been differently if you sang and John played bass? We probably would have broke up after about six months. It would have been a different take on it. But all you guys contribute to lyrics and so forth, right? Yeah. As it goes on. I wonder if it would have been a little less happy. Do you think you would have been... Are you more void side or faith side?
SPEAKER_01:See, John didn't write a whole lot of the lyrics for the early stuff. It was mostly Tony. Okay. So the lyrics would have probably been the same because that's all mostly Tony. But yeah, I don't know what it would have been like. Who knows? Yeah. Who knows? And the early stuff, there's a lot of it. I know. I was listening today. We went to Goldmine, and we had, like, what song do you guys want to do? And we go, okay, here they are. They just had a scroll. They rolled out a copper scroll with all the songs on there. Yeah, I mean, it was pretty
SPEAKER_02:prolific. You guys laid down, like, 20
SPEAKER_01:songs. I mean, that was just because that's just what we did, though. We would, you know, if we had jobs, you'd work during the day, and then at night you'd go to Carl's house and... and write a song, you know? And then we had a big, like, refrigerator box cardboard. And so the first song, I'm pretty sure, was I Won't Kill For You. Yeah. And then Death Row. Yeah. And then we just added songs every time. And every day, we'd go play every song. Yeah. So, you know, this time today, we'd play 10 songs. And now tomorrow, oh, we got 11 songs. The next day, now we got 12 songs. Yeah. So, you know, at some point, we were playing 40 songs. I know. By 82, you got 40 songs. We played every single one of them that was on there. I wish we still had that piece of cardboard. I know. I know. That would be awesome. It's in one or two pictures. There's some picture, I think, with John with an army helmet. Okay. And it's in there? It's in the background. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I'll have to dig and find it. That's so cool. So what do you remember about recording? At Goldmine? Yeah, the demos.
SPEAKER_01:I just remember a whirlwind. I remember the guy just being very confused about what was going on. Yeah. Did he stay and listen the whole time or did he just leave? Oh, I think he had to kind of listen. And I think that's what was so irritating for him. But I think he did. I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't remember exactly. But I do remember. We didn't know. We had no idea how he did anything. We just wanted to make a demo. We have 40 songs on our piece of cardboard that we brought down there to play every single song that was on there. So we just said we want to do all these songs. And I don't really remember a whole lot. I just remember being there a long time and, I mean, you know. You think it was two days? I think it was all in one day. Holy cow. Yeah, I think it was an eight-hour. I think we had an eight-hour session. So we had, you know, we recorded everything in about 15 minutes. And hung out and drank beer. Yeah, I mean, it did take a long time because the guy, you know, we were out of tune. And then, you know, the guy had never heard anything like that before. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is amateur horror.
SPEAKER_02:Sorry, bud. My fault. Yours will be fine. This is not because this was hooked up through the Bluetooth. So blame me. But yeah. Oh, my gosh. All right. Let's start from the beginning. I know. Let's start over. So were you like... That must have been so fun having that many of your own songs recorded. Did you just listen to them all the time? I think so.
SPEAKER_01:But, you know, yeah, just... We didn't know if they were good or not good. I remember asking the guy at the studio, is this good? And he's all... It was different. Yeah, I think that's what he said. It was nice.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but I mean, it is good. Like for your first stab at doing stuff, I mean, you guys just sound really well practiced, right? Because you practice all the time. We practiced all the time. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's
SPEAKER_01:all we do. We go practice till, you know, from like five till seven, whatever. And when the sun went down, then it was like, OK, you know, who's has the party tonight or who's got the beer money tonight?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean, it just sounds like you guys practice so much and it's good. There's a reason why it's like I'm almost always impressed. Right. The Grand Theft Auto guys did it in the 90s and then we just did it again.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, we had no idea. We didn't, you
SPEAKER_02:know. So then after that, you get picked up by Rodney, and he plays a song on the radio. Right. And what did that feel like to you? It
SPEAKER_01:felt weird. Yeah. Mostly because it was that song. For sure. Yeah. And we were pretty much Land of No Toilets then. You're writing the Land of No Toilets when that song starts going. Right. And I think we already had some of the Land of No Toilets songs. That song was just a fluke song. It's off the charts. If all our stuff was on the graph, I'd be like, well. But it was a good song. Yeah, good song. And Rodney liked it. And so he asked us to be on the record. And so you go re-record it. We went to re-record it in tune this time, I think. And no
SPEAKER_03:piddling right now.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. We had to have someone else do that. But I remember going down there, and we had no idea, Zach. We're just some kids, and we didn't know what we were doing. We didn't know. what position we were actually in when we were in that, in it, you know?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So, so we go down there and what studio is that?
SPEAKER_02:I don't remember. It's in LA
SPEAKER_01:or Hollywood. Right. Right. And you're going in to do a single song, one single song for Rodney's record, you know? And, uh, and, but you know, but we're not going to take no shit, dude. Cause we're, we're punk rock now and fuck everybody and fuck you. And, and, uh, So we go down there. We had our Oxnard attitudes because we were like 20 years old, 19, 20. And just starting out in punk rock and saying fuck you to the normal music business. Yeah. And whatever. That's what we felt we were doing. And then when we got down there, we'd only been playing not even a year, I think, when we recorded that song. So I remember I went down there, and my bass, I only had two strings on my bass. I had the E string and the A string. Because I only played the E string. So I didn't need it. The other ones I broke, and bass strings were like$25. Who had$25 back then? Even now. But yeah. So I show up, and then I open my case up, and they go, what the hell is that? And I go, what? What? They go, where's the rest of your strings? I go, I don't need them.
SPEAKER_02:I'm not in a
SPEAKER_01:funk band, dude. Yeah, I go, I don't need them. And they were like, oh, they were disgusted. It was so funny. And then... And then I think we brought Brandon down with us. And so Brandon was going to be our manager guy or whatever. So he was going to work out the contract. So that went well. Get 10 free records instead of five. No, it didn't go well at all. They were like, what do you think you are, some kind of lawyer? And, you know, Rodney just, I mean, I'm sorry, Robbie Fields just did post. He's been very nice to us recently, or always has been, actually. But Clean Cut American Kid's been doing very well. And he posted that we were the only band that hasn't talked shit about him over the years and whatever. Thank God there was no internet back then. So I'm going to just say a couple things. I'm not trying to talk trash. This is just exactly how it was and how we felt at the time and not saying we're right or they're right. But so we go there, and they were disgusted by my two strings on a bass. They were disgusted that we brought someone to try and negotiate the contract or whatever it was. Just someone to look
SPEAKER_02:out
SPEAKER_01:for you. Huh?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:someone to look out for you. Yeah, but they didn't appreciate it. So I think while Brandon was negotiating with whoever he was, We were sitting out in the lobby, and they had Playboys on the coffee table there. So we're sitting back, and Tony whooped open a Playboy, and he's looking at the centerfold. And then Robbie comes peeking in. He's all, you guys are so, so amateurish. Put that magazine down. What do you think you're doing? We're looking at each other going. You have it, dude. Yeah, it's right here on the thing. It's your magazine. Yeah, what the hell is going on? So we were just going. And so they were like, they didn't like us.
SPEAKER_02:They really
SPEAKER_01:did not
SPEAKER_02:like us. Well, that's how sophisticated they are. They have a Playboy subscription and only read the article. Yeah, yeah. That's very highbrow.
SPEAKER_01:But I remember, and I do remember hearing the engineer saying, at one point he turned around to the guy, one of the posh boys, the other musician that was there, that kind of liaison, and told him, I thought Rodney said we're only going to have good punk rock on this record. I swear to God. I was like, oh, man. But so we, you know, if we, if we had any kind of smarts or strategy for being in the music business or whatever, that was, I mean, that you can't have a better first step than that. Sure. And we didn't care. Yeah. We wanted to go. We don't want to do clean cut American kid. That's where the, that's where the guys that don't let us replay boys. Yeah. You
SPEAKER_02:know, they
SPEAKER_01:do
SPEAKER_02:that stuff. We want to go do our, well, you make a very hard right turn and do Lana, no toilets, but it was, it was not really a right turn. Because you're already going that way. But sonically, it's
SPEAKER_01:rare. It was already there. Okay, yeah. As far as the quality. The guitar tone. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:The guitar tone is gnarly.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's because Posh Boys, they were a little bit more of a professional studio. And plus, it was Rodney's record. So they want to make everything sound good. And Mystic... They just pretty much let us have control, which is their first mistake. But, you know, so we had no idea how to make a guitar sound or, you know, what's a good guitar sound. And they were just kind of letting us do what we wanted to do, which is what we wanted to do.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So, yeah, it's
SPEAKER_02:pretty rough. It's very raw. Yeah. It's very raw. And we've already gone in plenty on the Folger's Can story. Oh, right, right. Yeah. Which is very classic.
SPEAKER_01:Was that the whole record or just a couple songs? I forget.
SPEAKER_02:You know, Carl remembers everything and he can't really remember. He thinks it was just a couple songs. Which is crazy because you can't really tell a difference.
SPEAKER_01:Have you listened to the record? Well,
SPEAKER_02:yeah. The kick drum is pretty buried anyway. But yeah. So you put out the 7-inch and do you... have a bunch of copies? Is it getting out there? Are
SPEAKER_01:people
SPEAKER_02:catching on to those songs as much as they were to Clean Cut?
SPEAKER_01:No, I would say no. And we don't really know how people really were catching on to Clean Cut because that was on the Rodney on the Rock record. And I don't know how many of the kind of people we were hanging around with had the Rodney on the Rock record. Well, what type of people was that marketed to
SPEAKER_02:then? Like college rock
SPEAKER_01:or something? Well, no, it was for punk rockers, but it was more of a, like you said, a sophisticated audience because it had like a new wave on one side. That's right. And then it had the punk rock on the other side. So it was, you know... People just dipping their toes. People just dipping their toes. Yeah. And it was what Rodney played. Rodney played eclectic music on his show, so that was kind of what it represented. But it was kind of like that, a new wave on one side and then the punk rock on the other.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So... To go back, you said you brought Brandon with you. Do you remember meeting those guys, the Dr. No guys or the Aggression guys? I
SPEAKER_01:remember when I met Mark Hickey. I was at the Starwood and I was pissing in the urinal. And he's all, dude, you're pissing on my band. And I was all, what? He's all, that's my band right there. And I go, it was an Aggression sticker on the urinal. And I go, oh, you're an Aggression? I go, oh, you must be Mark. Because we knew who those guys were. They were older. And we kind of independently found punk rock and were going to shows in LA and all that before we even really met the other people in the Nardcore scene. So I remember that's when I met Mark. And then... Like Ismael, I remember the first time I saw Ismael, I was at Ventura College in line waiting to register for classes. And he was standing in there with his two brothers. And he had like a weird mohawk and he would wear his green army jacket. And I was looking and going, those guys are punk rock. Check those guys out. They were kind of scary to me and stuff like that. But then when I met Ismael later, I go, oh, you're the guy I saw at Ventura College or whatever. But we got... So I remember one way we really met a lot of people was I worked at this place, El Taco de Mexico in Ventura. Now it's called Evita's.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And there was a girl that worked there, Gina Salcido. And so we started talking and she said, oh, I go to punk rock. My friends all go to punk rock and stuff. And she goes, oh, I know those guys and these guys. She goes, why don't you come over to Art and Joey's house this weekend? And they lived on Pierpont. Joey was a singer for Dr. No. And then Art was... just one of the original punk rock guys in the area. And so I went to Art and Joey's house with her, and I met like Becca and the Scalones, they would call them, E-Smile and Jaime and them. And then I would bring Tony and John and our crew all over. Then it all became a thing.
SPEAKER_02:Cool. And were there not like... real shows going on in Oxnard yet? It was mostly like house parties?
SPEAKER_01:It was house parties. And I think one show, I mean, because there was only like 12 of us. Sure. You know what I mean? It really was basically the people in the bands and then maybe their girlfriends and a couple other guys. But what was the question?
SPEAKER_02:Just how you met everyone.
SPEAKER_01:Oh.
SPEAKER_02:And I think you answered. Oh, okay. That was pretty good. So are you... Do you remember when a club starts popping up in Oxnard or when you're able to play legit shows here? Or are you just always going to L.A. and playing?
SPEAKER_01:Pretty much going to L.A. and Santa Barbara. Okay. So Santa Barbara has Costa de la Raza? No, it was Goleta Valley. Okay. So there were shows going on up there. Maybe like Rock Pile Records would have some kind of band play there every once in a while. Okay. So there was nothing really here. The first show here was... that the port winning me community center show.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And that was, well, that was 1982, right? Yeah. So I was two. You were two. You were born at least. So that was 1982. That was my birthday in 1982. Awesome. Right. 20 years old that day. But, uh, and then even after that, there wasn't really many shows until probably 84. And then the community center would have, was having shows on Casa Tropical. Okay. And then, Eddie was having shows. Not, well, Eddie was until later.
SPEAKER_02:So that, the Wyoming show that you're talking about, how many people were there, do you think?
SPEAKER_01:There may have been a hundred people. Okay. May have been a hundred people. And I think, you know, probably 60 of them were, were from here.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. That's pretty positive. That's really early.
SPEAKER_01:I think, I think I'm, you know, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it was only 50. Sure. Seemed like a hundred.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But, uh, It was a good... It was a decent crowd. You know, it was a bunch of people from L.A. came up, you know, and we had a good time.
SPEAKER_02:Cool. So before and after the first 7-inch, the Land Under Toilets, do you see, like, a jump in your popularity? Well... Like in playing the L.A. shows? Are people just familiarizing themselves more? Do you feel like you're getting
SPEAKER_01:fans? Yeah, some kind of fans. We were never, like... We were never upper echelon. Sure. Or top tier, or even... You know, we were pretty mediocre as far as that. I mean, as far as. As far as reception. As far as reception. Sure. I mean, some guys, some places was really super positive. Other places was like, eh. Yeah. But, yeah, we did good. We were, and that's not, you know, we didn't. I didn't pay attention to that, I'll say, honestly. I wasn't, you know. Well, that's like Gloria playing bass. You're lucky you're not the singer. But, you know. Then it really matters. Yeah, I wouldn't really, didn't really. I mean, you know, of course it was cool. We were selling records and people were coming to see us. But it was just like, that's what, all of our friends were doing the same thing. True. You know, Dr. No was doing, that's what they were doing, Stalag. So that's just what we did. It wasn't like it was, you know, anything crazy. But 83
SPEAKER_02:is still early. Everyone's doing it by 84. So you're a little early, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Do you remember your first time going out of town, like further than Santa Barbara or L.A.?
SPEAKER_01:I think we went to San Francisco.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:It was probably right after Land of No Toilets. Okay. And we played the Mabuhay. Okay. And I can't remember where else we played. And that's
SPEAKER_02:in San Francisco?
SPEAKER_01:In San Francisco, yeah. Did you guys ever play Gilman? We played Gilman, that was years later. When was Gilman, late 80s? Maybe 90s, did we play there? I think maybe we played there in the 90s. Early 90s. But not in the 80s. I can't remember.
SPEAKER_02:That's perfectly fine. I don't expect anyone to remember anything. It's not on your list here. I only put down the discography. Do you remember the writing process for... attacking to do an LP, being different than... Obviously, the demo, you were just writing songs, you're brand new, just having fun. New song, new song, new song. Seven Inch, I'm assuming you've got to go in and you've got to write a chunk of songs, right? To do for the... Or no, those are just your next eight songs? Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:I swear to God. What happens next is probably the best out of our next... 12 songs. Okay. Something like that.
SPEAKER_02:So you don't go in trying to write a cohesive record. No. You're just writing more material. Writing more material. And choosing the best stuff and put it on. Yeah, right. Yeah. But it's so, for being like a fast hardcore record, it is pretty, it's eclectic, right? You have like fast blasts of speed and then you walk, the slow parts like kind of in a dark style and so forth. And you kind of curate like a, you curate a nice record.
SPEAKER_01:No, thanks. I think a lot of that was just that, you know, when we started going to see bands and stuff, it's like, wow, I really like the songs that, you know, are like this or whatever. So you just kind of try to make that same feel. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Dude,
SPEAKER_01:you wrote Book and Discover. I wrote the
SPEAKER_02:music for Book and Discover. And who wrote the lyrics? Tony. Tony wrote the lyrics? Yeah. But you wrote all the music. I wrote all the music. Is that just... jamming your room like the
SPEAKER_01:yeah yeah just fucking around going yeah then i just started doing that because i go okay all of these all of these can use the high e yeah with all the it all fits with these so i'll just leave that on you know what i mean yeah started messing and kind of a tsol ish they were doing a lot of that picking that's what i was wondering slows we always like the song i mean for me personally and i think most of the other guys in the bands the best songs that i that was the ones that would start out kind of slow and kind of start telling the story, and then all of a sudden it builds up, and now you're just in a bunch of mayhem. Yeah. Well, you
SPEAKER_02:guys do a good job with that. Right on the seven-inch of the sleepwalking. Right, right. Here with Bookin's
SPEAKER_01:cover. Right, so that's the kind of songs that when we were at shows in the pit, that's the kind of songs we like to slam to. Yeah. You know, slow and then fast and then slow and then fast.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, the ultimate being Seagulls, California by U3. Yeah. You know, the ultimate slow to fast.
UNKNOWN:Right.
SPEAKER_02:You do your first U.S. tour after Web as next. Well, you make it all the way to Pittsburgh.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. What do you remember? So first off, Carl doesn't go. So you have Scott Radinsky come and
SPEAKER_01:play drums. Yeah, Scott Radinsky played drums. Yeah, we had like
SPEAKER_02:two weeks of practice with him. Yeah, so how did that work? You know the Scared Straight guys already?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we already knew Scott. Well, we knew all of them. Okay. It was a real small scene. Those guys were like the newer, the younger guys. Mm-hmm. And, yeah, we just knew him. And we knew Scott played drums, and Carl couldn't make it. And so Scott said, yeah, sure, I'll play.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so the other drummer wouldn't have to do double duty of playing drums. Right. Yeah. And how did that
SPEAKER_01:go? That was Walsby, who was the other drummer. That's right. Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:Walsby. Yeah, and I'm going to get him on here, too. Good. It'll be good. But, yeah, so... What do you remember about practicing with Rudizky? What was that like? He was able to listen to stuff because the records were out,
SPEAKER_01:right? Right, right. So he practiced at home. Yeah, he would practice at home. So I don't think we really practiced maybe five times. I think it was at his house. But Carl has
SPEAKER_02:such a weird style that it seems like it would be strange to emulate.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm sure he didn't. Because Carl does have a unique style. And I've noticed playing our songs with other drummers, it's never... It's not, you know, it's not like the way Carl is. Yeah. And I think, you know, see, a lot of that is when we started making music is we had no preconceived notions of how a song goes or how music, what notes are supposed to hit after this note or whatever, you know. A lot of times Tony would say, okay, I'm going to write a song, I'm going to follow the dots. Yeah. You know, or something like that. But so I think a lot of our... A lot of the stuff we came up with, I never knew how to play other bands. The first music I ever learned how to play was Ill Repute songs. So I think a lot of that, just having that freshness or no contamination somehow, outside, I'm going to say contamination. But I never wanted to learn how to play. I never wanted to be a musician. It was just more wanting to be in a punk rock band. Yeah, and you're
SPEAKER_02:obviously big fans of the music. but you're not trying to emulate anyone.
SPEAKER_01:And see, the thing that I'm starting to realize with punk rock, I think I can put it in words a little bit, is that, see, back then, we were all part of the struggle. The bands were the audience, and the audience were the bands. So it was all one big thing. I remember John Macias from Circle One, He used to yell at people. He'd play their song and people would start clapping. He'd say, don't clap for us because we're the same as you. Stop clapping for us. And so he couldn't clap for Circle One because he didn't want you to clap for him because we're all the same. And so that's the way we kind of would look at the whole thing. The audience is with us and we're all just one big group against whoever. Or
SPEAKER_02:against society, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I think that's rad. So... And you know what got me thinking that was, you know Cola Boy?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I went to his show a few weeks ago. Oh, I
SPEAKER_02:wanted to come up. It's so hard for me to come up. San Diego to hear is terrible.
SPEAKER_01:So, you know, I knew Cola Boy. I didn't know he was Cola Boy. Yeah. But I knew Matthew. He'd come to our shows and stuff. Yeah. And then someone was saying something about Cola Boy, and I'd look up and go, I know him. Yeah. But... That band Civil Conflict played that night as well. And it was a whole, it was like an anti-gentrification rally kind of thing. And, you know, let's help out the Oxnard Pack. And the crowd was awesome. There was like a dance crowd. There was a punk crowd. There was a gay crowd. And then when Civil Conflict was playing, everybody was in the pit. Yeah. Every type of person was in the pit. Moms, grandma was in the pit. So that was beautiful. It was awesome. That's so
SPEAKER_02:cool. And then when Cold Boy's playing, everyone's dancing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Everyone's just dancing. I saw that
SPEAKER_02:video. He's coming down to San Diego, I want to say next month. I'll go see him. Right on. Yeah. So he's awesome. He is. Yeah. I bought the record. I had to order it from Europe because it's like only present. Oh, that's right. It's only present in Spain. Yeah, it could be France. I think it's France. I think he goes to France like once a year. Oh, so cool. But I'm like, fuck, dude, you got to wait for this to come in the mail. I want it right now, you know? But so you do the tour with Scott Radinsky. That was fun. Yeah. Do you remember any standout shows?
SPEAKER_01:Not really. I remember we played a bunch of colleges. Okay. Oh, excuse me. Which was a little strange because... Punk rock still wasn't, you know, a normal or an accepted form of entertainment. And that's, that's Eddie starting to
SPEAKER_02:book because Tony said that
SPEAKER_01:he booked that tour. Right. Okay. So he, he got a, that's his start. That was good. He did. I mean, getting the college colleges was good, but I do remember being on a lot of different college campuses, you know, walking around and going, Oh, so this is what college is.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And then the tour ends dramatically. Yeah. Yeah, unfortunately. We
SPEAKER_01:were going really well and played in Pittsburgh. Great show at the Electric Banana. And afterwards, it was the first night no one stayed in the car. Yeah, crucial error. Crucial error. Oh, my God. Party foul. But, yeah, so it was actually we had a rented station wagon and a U-Haul trailer, and it got stolen.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:All our stuff, all our clothes. I think we had our money, though. But we didn't have any of our merch, no instruments, just the clothes on our back. Yeah. And, yeah, it wasn't that fun.
SPEAKER_02:No, it's got to be. I can't imagine.
SPEAKER_01:And then I heard, like, we got back from tour, and about a month later, someone wrote us a letter and goes, yeah, all the homeless people are wearing ill repute shirts in
SPEAKER_02:Pittsburgh. That's awesome. And you don't try to carry on with the Scared Straight gear and stuff.
SPEAKER_01:Well, no, that was their gear too. Oh, everything was together in the trailer. Yeah, everything was in the trailer. That was all of our stuff. Yeah. And we only had one drum set because... Sure. Yeah, if you're sharing. But yeah, so we... And then we had... I think we were going to Washington, D.C. was the next stop. So there was some band that we had about four or five shows with. Yeah. They were going to let us use their equipment. And it wasn't... it wasn't up to par. I mean, even that, not that we really need up, we use a folder scan, but it was just kind of, we were kind of, it wasn't, it was just, it would be more embarrassing than anything, I think. Yeah. At that point. So we just said, ah, let's go home and regroup and, and see what happens.
SPEAKER_02:Did you ever go again? On tour? In the 80s? Yeah. Like out further than Arizona? No, no. Yeah. That was your first, the, the attempt at a four US. That was the attempt, right. Until, all the way until Big Rusty Balls? Right. Okay. Um, So the years I get confused on for most of NARD is like the 86 to 1990. Like, what's going on? You're asking me? Yeah. You're around. Huh? You're around. Okay, so the Oxnard Community Center starts doing shows, 84, 85. Something like that. And so now there's a scene in Oxnard.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And you can go to shows here and so forth. Everyone's LPs, I think the Aggression LP comes out in 83. Yeah. But Stalag, Dr. No, and you guys, your LPs all come out in 84. So everyone's firing. The scene's on fire. The community center shows are drawing how many kids, you think? I couldn't tell you. But over 200. Oh,
SPEAKER_01:yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And that lasts for how long? Let's say that only the four of the big four Oscar bands play. Like, is there a fall off in 85? Is it just as strong as 84? Yeah. Or, like, when does it start to... Probably more towards 86. Okay, and is that because bands start changing,
SPEAKER_01:or there's, like... I think bands start changing, but I think the bands are changing just because, you know, the... I'm not sure why bands change, exactly. Well, everyone's getting burnt out, kind of, right? Yeah, okay, you know, yeah, because the punk rock thing was getting real violent around that time, too, and it was just kind of like a bummer to... In 86, it started to be a bummer or anything? Right, I think 86 started to be a bummer, and 87 was really a bummer. Is that when Fenders is, like, firing? Right. Okay. And so we were just, you know, we felt like we were just the background music for punk rock fights.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. You know? Yeah. And...
SPEAKER_01:It's no fun. No,
SPEAKER_02:no, no. So that starts getting to you, and then you go on a hiatus in 87? Something like that.
SPEAKER_01:We just kind of took a break. I think John went to a guitar institute, and we were all kind of getting on with our lives a little
SPEAKER_02:bit. Yeah, Tony and Carl both have kids. They have kids.
SPEAKER_01:So in the band, excuse me, Like I was saying, too, we never really got into the band. We never had a plan for the band. Pretty much our plan was just, that's us four. This is our band, us four, no matter what. So a lot of times if someone couldn't do something, then okay, we'll not do this project because someone can't make it or whatever it is. But yeah, 87, it was just kind of... Punk rock was kind of falling off a little bit. It seemed like, to me, the crowds and... And you guys didn't
SPEAKER_02:want
SPEAKER_01:to turn
SPEAKER_02:into a speed metal
SPEAKER_01:band. We couldn't turn into a speed metal band. I mean, didn't want to turn into a speed metal band. So, yeah, we didn't want to do that. We came up with some really poppy stuff. I don't know if you heard some of that... I got everything. Okay, you got the stuff that's not
SPEAKER_02:released and everything? I do not have the songs that didn't make transition. So Carl has other stuff, supposedly.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Do you have, like, the stuff we did before, like, 90? Carl's going
SPEAKER_02:to give it to me. The demos for Big Rusty Balls?
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that. But there's good stuff. And there's some stuff before that, too, I think. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:It's not. Do you think he archived everything? Carl's the archiver of the band. I think I have it somewhere, too. We'll track it down, Jim. All right. Hold on, I've got to go to Discogs real quick because I want to get the song right. We're going to talk about doing transition. So you guys, John goes away, comes back, you guys start jamming again, you're just having fun, you go in and record songs. What was your outlook of what you were going to get out of recording that became transition? Did you think you were just demoing stuff, or do you think you were doing a record?
SPEAKER_01:No, I didn't think we were doing a record. I didn't think we were doing a record. And... So I remember going down there and we were messing around in the studio. They put a lot of time in on this, I guess. You know what I mean? A lot of studio time. Because this is
SPEAKER_02:a new Mystic studio that's down in
SPEAKER_01:Carlsbad? Or Oceanside. Oceanside. Somewhere down there. Yeah, so it was cool. We'd stay down with Phil Co. And we'd play some shows down there sometimes. But then what happened was after we got into doing, we recorded a bunch of stuff, just messing around, then we kind of dropped the ball and laid low and kind of fell.
SPEAKER_02:Because they thought you were demoing there, but you're going to come back and do a record. Something like that. You never came back and did a record. They're like, well, fuck it. Then we just took your record. Exactly. This is your record now. Yeah. Okay, so that song, Burning... is awesome. Oh, thanks.
SPEAKER_01:That's Tony's song. I love that song. We got some good stuff, man. Dude,
SPEAKER_02:that's a good song. And I love Tony singing. I mean, obviously, John is the classical repute. When you guys are like a fast hardcore band, it's got to be John. But we'll
SPEAKER_01:get into it. Tony's got some emotion. We'll
SPEAKER_02:get into Bleed and how much I love it. So Transition comes out, and then you guys do a reunion show in Los Angeles in 89. Yeah. And this is your shining moment, right? Yeah, you love when people throw clothes at you. What do you remember about this show?
SPEAKER_01:I remember people throwing clothes at us. No, I remember, okay, so we hadn't played in a while. We were coming back, and we had some new stuff.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You know, which we learned you never, we're not allowed to have new stuff, apparently. Well, you got to mix it in. Yeah, so it was... It's an art. Right. Well, we didn't learn that art. So I'm not sure exactly who the perpetrators were, but it seemed to me that we were in a neighborhood, and there was neighborhood people there, it seemed to me, that were fucking with us. Okay. And they kept throwing shit. And I just, you know, I was real angry back then. And... I just said, okay, next time someone throws something, he's going to get punched. Yeah. And someone threw something, and he got punched. And then, yeah, I feel so bad, though, because Tony got jacked up. Yeah, Tony took a full can to the face. Yeah, he had like a big old, I think he's probably still got a scar there. So, you know, I don't know. But that's what happened. But I don't know who they were. I don't know if they were like punkers or a neighborhood. I don't know. I don't know who they were, but that wasn't... Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:so you get some of my Carl follow-up questions. That was Operation Ivy on that show, too. Yeah, he was saying Operation Ivy and Offspring. Oh. Yeah. That's a hell of a lineup, huh? Goddamn. Yeah, so Carl was saying that... It's kind of like rioty. You guys get out of there. You can't find Tony. You go regroup like in a bar. I don't remember. Okay. I need to follow up and ask him because it was like, how long do you wait for Tony to show up before you just go back to Oxnard and hope he makes it back? The
SPEAKER_01:proper amount
SPEAKER_02:of time. Yeah, at least 45 minutes, dude.
SPEAKER_01:There was no cell phones and shit back then. What are you
SPEAKER_02:supposed to do? Well, that's the thing. How could he even know where you were? You don't. I know, that's so insane. But yeah, he was in ER because he got his lip split real bad. Oh, that's insane. So after that show, do you just take another couple years off? That was 89, huh? 89. So you guys come back and before... big rusty balls comes out, you actually have a pretty successful local run. You're doing the Ventura clubs and stuff.
SPEAKER_01:L.A., playing U-teams a lot, Pico Rivera. We were playing a lot. And you're
SPEAKER_02:doing well out there?
SPEAKER_01:We're doing well everywhere, yeah. We were doing well. The early 90s, things seemed to rejuvenate or restart up again.
SPEAKER_02:Was there a break after this Ill Repute Comeback show, that 89-1? Did you take any time off, or was it just... You kept going after that and
SPEAKER_01:things got better. We did take a break. I think we took a break for a year
SPEAKER_02:or two. I think so. And then 91? Probably 91-ish. Yeah, something like
SPEAKER_01:that. Come back
SPEAKER_02:and things just start going well. You curate a better set list. Please, fans.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, we just played our old songs. But yeah, so we started, yeah, just, I don't know. I don't know what happened that show. That was really weird. I still don't understand that.
SPEAKER_02:So you start playing more old songs, but are you also like... We've got all kinds of new stuff. You're peppering in Big Rusty Ball stuff.
SPEAKER_01:Some Big Rusty Ball stuff.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah, cool. And can we talk about that? Like, this is... Because you're playing, like, the Ventura Clubs and drawing 300, 400 gives?
SPEAKER_01:Decent. Yeah, I'm having good shows.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, that's insane. For, like, right before Punk Break breaking. Right, right. Just before Green Day, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know? So that's just pretty impressive. And I think... Let's see. So the process of Big Rusty Balls, you go and you demo for it first? We made
SPEAKER_01:a demo, and I think we were shopping that around. And I remember we played Gilman around this time, and we were up there, and Fat Mike was there. He was all, hey, you guys. He goes, man, I really want you for my label. He's all, but... I just have to totally change your sound. And Sting goes, I don't want to do that to you guys. So it's probably better if you just guys go do your own thing or whatever. So then that's when we did Doctor Strange. He came along and picked us up. And we recorded Big Rusty Balls. I like that record.
SPEAKER_02:I like it too. But I like the next one more. Bleed is, I love it.
SPEAKER_01:I like it, too. You're younger, so it's more your... Yeah, well, I wish Bleed could have gone on fat. That
SPEAKER_02:would have killed it.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right. It would have. But see, Bleed shouldn't
SPEAKER_02:have been an ill-repeat record. Sure. It should have been whatever else. Well, it just hashes back to Burnin'. Right? A little bit. Okay. Yeah, that's what it's like. It's just Tony singing. Yeah. You know? And he had the best song on transition, and then he sang on Bleed. What's the best song on transition? It's Burning. Burning, okay. Yeah. Yeah, so... Okay, but after Big Rusty Balls, you guys tour. But this is without John. So you have the... What's your take on the John thing?
SPEAKER_01:What is this like? Let's see how many times Jim's been a dick with El Repito. No. Huh? Okay, well... Jim was a dick again on this one, too, I think. Do you think this was you? Yeah. Because no one singled you out. They're too nice to say. No one singled you out, Jim. I'm singling myself out. Okay. It was mostly me. Because I had a bad attitude. And I just remember that it was frustrating trying to, you know, we want to go on tour, we want to do this, and then... Some people, okay, well, maybe, but... I don't know, it just came to a head at one point. I
SPEAKER_02:can understand both sides. I mean, on one side, it's like you just put out your first decent LP in nine years, so it's time to go. But on the other side, you guys have always taken long breaks, and it's been okay. It's just bad timing. If all he wanted was a month, that's...
SPEAKER_01:I can't remember exactly if it was a month or whatever. But, yeah, I was very un... I wasn't cooperative.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so, but in your head, you would have had him leave and then keep going and have Tony switch to singing and playing guitar and get another guitarist. How did you envision the band without John? I didn't. You were just like, fuck it, break
SPEAKER_01:it up. Yeah, I don't remember exactly what... I wanted to still go, but it seemed to me at that point, though, John was... drifting away a little bit as well though and you could kind of tell because of the record okay how many songs is john singing on on that record sure you know i'm only half now and i think a lot of that a lot of that was you know john was a much better musician when he came back from guitar school so i think he had a lot of that inside him that he wanted to get out and The thing is, you know, ill-repeat was the only vehicle that any of us had to do whatever it is we wanted to do. So, you know, I want to do this. John wants to do that. Tony wants to do that. And so, you know, I think what happened around that time is John wanted to write his own songs, which, you know, I totally understand it. But Tony, at the time, was a better songwriter, and most of the songs were Tony writing. And somehow it came to, okay, well, I can't really sing this one, Tony. Why don't you sing this one? And then it just turned into, okay, Tony, you just sing all the songs that you write, and I'll sing the songs that I write, which was a mistake. But we weren't looking at it as a, I don't know, we didn't look at the big picture or anything like that. We were just like... Yeah, it's really hard. I mean, it's hard to say it was a mistake. Well, I think it was a mistake. Yeah. Because how many bands switch singers in the middle of a run, and it's not the thing to do, really. Yeah, but what
SPEAKER_02:if you started something? That could have been the start of everyone doing it. You never know. I mean, you don't know if it's a weird decision, but you don't know if it's a bad decision. You know, just
SPEAKER_01:because other people haven't done it. It's a bad decision, kids. Don't do it. Well,
SPEAKER_02:in hindsight, I mean, you know, you're looking
SPEAKER_01:at it alone. No, at the time, you could feel it. You could feel it. Okay. I sensed a little something. John not being satisfied maybe is probably what it was. And it's, you know, which you can understand. But, yeah, I think I felt that. And then he... He went to Europe to surf or something like that. And then we had our tour planned. He was going to be back. And we had some opportunity in Oregon. And he needed to come back a week earlier. And he wouldn't. So that
SPEAKER_02:was... That was your breaking point. Yeah. Yeah. So you do a full US tour without him. Yeah. Okay. And you go all the way? Like a month-long tour?
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, two, two broken up about, I think two weeks and three weeks. Okay. Something like that.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that's right. You do half and half. Yeah. Yeah. And how do you feel about that? You have fun?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it was, it wasn't a good time for punk rock though. Okay. You
SPEAKER_02:know,
SPEAKER_01:around the country.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And you know, and we were, how many years later was it? Since when? Since the last record. Nine. Nine years. So since what happens next? So, you know, so nine years, uh, People didn't really know who we were in a lot of places. Yeah. And if it was, they were like, was that the same one, the same band? Right, because it looks different. Right, right. Yeah. So, and it was, you know, and we'd be, I mean, some shows, we had some good shows. Don't get me wrong, we played with Rancid in Colorado, which was, that was a great show. We had some really good shows, but then we had some, you know, clunkers along the way, too. But it was fun.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Do you, and then do you break up after that? You just do a couple tours and...
SPEAKER_01:After the big rusty balls?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah, that was it. Okay. And then how does it start getting back together, the Lipke era, like the bleed? Who's the catalyst for it?
SPEAKER_01:Joe.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Lipke. Okay. So basically that boiled down to– Because he comes back. He does like the–
SPEAKER_01:I'm just going to say how I
SPEAKER_02:feel, and it might not be right. Okay. Yeah. Well, let me set up who he is. So Joey Lipke plays drums on the Stalag 13 demo. And he came in the 90s. He started doing Edge Records. And I don't remember the chronology of it, but he gets Stalag back together. And Stalag is him and Blake, I think, are the only original guys in that. He puts out the No Motive CD, and he... comes to get your repute back together. All right, now you can say whatever you want.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. What was I going to say? I forget.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I was asking who was
SPEAKER_01:the catalyst to get your repute together. So Joe, I think Joe, you know, I think Joe, I don't want to really say, but Joe got everything back together.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you don't have to say anything bad. So Joe was the catalyst, like, let's do the repute. I'll play drums. Right. Okay. And... Carl's just not in the question at this point. Carl is done. Okay. He's pretty much done. He wanted to be out of it. Yeah. Okay. And then how do you find Nishaya? Joe. Okay. So Nishaya was Joe's project.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. It should have been, you know, it was pretty much Joe's project.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. But he gets you and Tony and he put the name Ill Repute on it. Right.
SPEAKER_01:Which we agreed to. I mean, we didn't say, you know, that was all part of the, we said, okay. And Tony writes most of the songs still, right? And I did too. I think I'm not as many as before, but I would write some music, and Tony would write lyrics to some of my music, and the rest of them were all Tony. But, you know, it shouldn't have been a Repute record.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know. I mean, it's you and Tony. And like you said, you've never had a vehicle to do your music outside of Repute.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I know, but that doesn't mean
SPEAKER_02:that... It's better than Transition. And I think it's better than Big
SPEAKER_01:Red's Balls. Oh, you do? Oh, yeah. See, I feel we sold out. No, no, no. Because, well, look how we sound. We're doing a new school. Oh, we've got to sound like no effects. That's a joke. We've got to sound like no effects. Come on. We've got to sound like no effects. Because no effects, no effects, no effects. They're selling. We want to make money. No effects. Well,
SPEAKER_02:musically, it sounds a little bit like that. But it's like you can't with Tony's voice. It keeps it real. Right. You know? Like I used to... talk about that with Max when we were doing the Somali Pirates band. I was like, man, I don't want to write too many pussy songs. And he's like, well, it can never be a pussy song with us singing on it because we sound like shit. You know what I mean? So it's like, how much can you sell out with... tony's soulful ass
SPEAKER_01:fucking voice over the top of it by going yeah this doesn't feel right but i guess i'll just play
SPEAKER_02:it anyways just because yeah so if you feel that way but i i i don't know i think those songs are great and they come off like super super soulful just because i love tony's voice so hold on let's let let's listen in it's gonna be ryan i think hey we're recording right what's up come on in Come on in. Yeah. You good. Seeing you at the door while someone else shows up.
SPEAKER_01:So not a
SPEAKER_02:fan of Bleed then?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I mean, I like some of the songs and stuff. Do you like it now? I haven't listened to it. And see, for me, I don't know, something happens with me with music too sometimes that it was a bad time when we were recording that record. I wasn't feeling it and stuff, you know, and so... I listen to it now and it makes me feel bad.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Oh, it brings up the feelings of how you felt then.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So I, a lot of that, a lot of stuff I don't want to listen to.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Just because that,
SPEAKER_01:you know.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I can feel that. I mean, it's a, I think it's a very heartfelt record. So I think that's part of the reason why it gets you in the feels. Yeah. That probably does. Yeah. It's really, it's really good. It's really, really good. And then you quit. Yeah. Because they go on to a different iteration of, Actually, without Nishaya, without Liebke, and without you. It's like the Joe Forrest. Does Chuck come in? Who plays drums on that record? Or is Joey still in it? I think Joey. Joey's still in it. Okay. And Chris McKee. Okay. And so you straight leave. Yeah. I just got out of there. I go, this is not what I want to do. Okay. And that's just it? Yeah. And you leave. Okay. And then you take a few years off and then? It'll repeat gets back together for the Hickey benefit. Right. Yeah. And how does that feel?
SPEAKER_01:Not good again, kind of. Because somehow they were going to do it with Fred Dixon playing bass. Okay. And I'm not sure how, but just all of a sudden on my email, I got on an email chain with those guys talking about when they were going to practice and stuff. And I'm like, what about me? Can I play the bass for you guys? So I had to worm my way back in for that. And that was going good. We were practicing with Carl. We were having fun again and stuff like that. And then that show fell through or something? It kept getting delayed. That's when Carl changed his mind about wanting to play and stuff. Right around that time as well. And that's when Chuck comes in. And then Chuck came in after that. Yeah. I think we still had another year maybe before Chuck even. I don't remember. Who would have played after? I don't think we had anybody for a little while. Okay. I think we didn't play. You just didn't play. I think we didn't play. Okay. If I recall.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and then do you remember getting Chuck in the band? Like did he do a tryout? God, did Chuck get in the band?
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:No, I think Chuck was just in the band.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you just knew him because he's been around forever.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I didn't know. I didn't really know Chuck. Oh. I didn't know him. Tony knew him. Yeah. And then so when we got back, you know, probably what, 2000, 2001? Mm-hmm. Sure. We had Chuck. Tony had known him from Nardcore All-Stars. Was Chuck in Nardcore All-Stars? Possibly. Yeah? Yeah. So that's where you know Chuck from.
SPEAKER_02:That's Ryan Fredette. Sorry, guys. No, you get it. I mean, that brings us up to present. And now you guys just play, like, once in a while. But all old shit, and it feels good. It's fun. And you guys are good.
SPEAKER_01:We are good, yeah. Everything's good. And, you know, it's just cool that I can't believe we're still doing it, to tell you the truth, because I just remember when I was 20 years old, I didn't want to see a frigging 35-year-old playing, you know? But now it's just a little different. Somehow the whole generations have kind of squeezed together. Well, and also the music never got better.
SPEAKER_02:You know, it's like, I don't know, what's better than what happens next?
SPEAKER_01:I'm just talking about punk rock in general as well. No, I
SPEAKER_02:know, but you're talking about seeing it and being like, I don't want to watch this old man band play or whatever. Right. Not when they're singing those songs, I guess. Yeah, but I don't know. It's like I want to see the originals play the original music. Cool, I'm happy to do it. Yeah, I know. You guys seem very sincere when you do it, and we're very excited to have, like, you know, Ill Repute is like the Oxnard band, I think, and you guys aren't embarrassing. You know, I would tell you if you guys were. That's
SPEAKER_01:good to
SPEAKER_02:know. Yeah. We're not embarrassing. No, it's great. Well, you talk about not wanting to see an old man band. Yeah, okay. And it's like, you see that shit. Yeah, we would know. You see people bring out the carcass of the band, and here it is. It's like, oh, it's kind of cool. I like to hear it. But you guys, the front three people are... Original
SPEAKER_01:members. We should each get our own ill repute and have battling ill reputes.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Like the other band. That would be a terrible idea. What you got going now is pretty rad.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it was fun. I'm glad we could do it. And who knows? Maybe there'll be some surprises coming up in the next year or so, too. Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:we're going to do a new Narco comp, and you guys have to do at least a song for it. Cool. Who's we? Oh. Just us, everybody. Yeah, the scene is going to put it together. We'll figure it out. No, I mean, in my opinion, it's the perfect time to do it. Because there's a lot of new bands right now. Yeah, I think that when the Nard, like the one that Tony did, it was just kind of a bad time to do it. Although, a noble effort and the greatest layout. Oh, yeah. The greatest layout and packaging that I've ever seen in my life. It's pretty awesome. It's amazing, but... right now is the time to do it because of the spread if you think about like the youngest band that's kicking ass compared to the oldest band that's kicking ass it's never gonna be it's never been like this before right so it's like
SPEAKER_01:and that's what I'm saying too like the generations are squeezing together as far as that
SPEAKER_02:goes you know totally and I just think that you have these like special moments in time that don't last that long especially in punk where like the turnover is so big right or anything can happen you know like tomorrow there could be nowhere to play right you know um or everyone breaks up. Ill repute and civil conflict break up, and we're like, well, what do we do with ourselves? So that's why now is the time to do it. We're going to figure some things out. A few of us have got to put our heads together and our wallets or our credit cards. But, yeah. Anything else you want to get into?
SPEAKER_01:No, I think that's it.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Do you feel like you've been well represented?
SPEAKER_01:Sure.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I think you did great, Jim. He was a
SPEAKER_01:good bowler.
SPEAKER_02:That was good, Ryan. Yeah, Timo Rapute, what's up? All right, thanks so much. Bye-bye.