Interview with Scott Lee Martin of 400 BLOWS and Bobby Missile of Attractive & Popular
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Full time guitarist for Los Angeles’ punk rock trio, 400 BLOWS, Scott Lee Martin is a big fan of G.G. Allen & the Jabbers, homosexual advertisements on myspace, sleeping on kitchen floors and was unsuccessful at dropping the kids off at the pool in Turbonegro’s green room at Emo’s. I interrupted Scott’s social time on Saturday evening for a quick chat.
Parade of Flesh: Why are you at my house?
Scott Lee Martin: Because you’re very fun.
PoF: Can you expand upon that?
SLM: If you don’t mind legal ramifications, then . . . Yes I can. Do you want me to just list the things we’ve done tonight or what?
PoF: Sure, go for it. I can always edit it later.
SLM: We went and saw a friend’s band play (Attractive & Popular) that was very good. And then we came to your house, “_ _ _ _ Central”. So good, thank you so much for being so shady, ‘cause we need more people like you on our team. I’m glad you’re on my side because we think a like. We need to stick together, that’s good stuff.
PoF: Why didn’t you play for us last night (June 29th)?
SLM: Quite unfortunately our drummer, (Ferdinand Cudia), has been stricken with a terrible plague that is ravishing his body and he is in the hospital and we can’t even visit him; it’s very serious. And I’m very sorry because I really wish we could have played the show ‘cause you’re awesome and all that. After going to your show tonight that you put on, I really wish we could have done it. And you know, we really tried; we woke up Ferdi every four hours while he was asleep and gave him his medicine and just tried to nurse him back to health; and he was so thankful. And then I was asleep and I guess he woke up and said “I need to be taken to the hospital, right now”. He couldn’t even open his eyes. He’s really fucked. It sucks. All prayers and thoughts go out to him please.
PoF: What other bands have you been in prior to 400 BLOWS?
SLM: So fucking many. Bedroom Walls, Book of Giant Pets, My Barbarian, Crumb, Snake vs. Wizard, STT-46, I could do this all fucking night. Seriously I could say names of bands I’ve been in for three days straight and I should just stop at the ones that I feel are important or that are my friends. And those are the ones I said.
PoF: How’d you hook-up w. 400 BLOWS?
SLM: Skot (lead singer) parties, I party. We live in the same town (Los Angeles).
PoF: Do you have a title for the new album?
SLM: Yes we do. Should I really dispel that here, is that okay? Yeah, SIDEWAYS CROSS it’s a concept, not a concept record; but a concept.
PoF: You are headed home tomorrow, correct? What are you doing after that?
SLM: Finish Sideways Cross and be on with it. Once that’s done and pressed and in our hands we can go tour. Everything is out of press. We sold out of everything and it’s kind of pointless to tour with just t-shirts. So it’s back to making bullets to go for the hunt.
PoF: Tell me about vultures.
SLM: (laughs) “Feeding the vultures” was a concept that Skot and I had we had some really paranoid crazy night together. Not really being the most healthy individuals at the time we decided that the next tour we we’re going to do was going to be called “Feeding the Vultures” because someone was going to die and vultures were going to eat them. And basically we’re vulture food going out there because it’s very cutting it close all the time with us because we really enjoy pleasure and it really fucks us in the ass a lot of the time. It just seems like around every single fucking corner because of the how we live our lives that we’re going to just be dead on the street and vultures are going to be picking at us. It has nothing to do with us or you. It has everything to do with nature taking its course on us because we’re dead. It’s kind of just a gamble. . . “No, Come on in dude” (walks in Bobby Missile of Attractive & Popular). It’s kind of a gamble if we’re going to come home alive. Actually, there are people in Los Angeles that have a death pool for me every time we go on tour. They're like “Ah, dude I give him three weeks. I give him fuckin’ two months.” Skot and I laugh at that and we think, oh fuck, we will just call it “Feeding the Vultures” because we are basically vulture food asking to be taken away from this life. We are going out in a blaze of glory, either way.
PoF: Hey asshole, thanks for interrupting our interview. What’s your name?
Bobby Missile: Bobby
PoF: Bobby what?
BM: Bobby Missile.
PoF: From?
BM: Attractive & Popular
PoF: From?
BM: Hot Springs National Park Arkansas.
SLM: From?
PoF: What label?
BM: Gold Standard Laboratories
SLM: From?
PoF: Run by?
BM: Sonny Kay
PoF: Why are you at my house?
BM: Because I played a show in Dallas and you booked it and we needed a place to crash.
PoF: How was tonight?
BM: It was awesome.
PoF: And any other comments?
BM: Thanks. And thanks for hooking us up.
PoF: Any other shows you have coming up soon in the DFW Metro area?
BM: We have a show in Denton, Rubber Gloves July 5th, with the Undoing of David Wright on July 5th.
PoF: And?
BM: A show at 1919 Hemphill in Fort Worth, but I can’t remember the date right off the top of my head. (FYI, its July 9th)
PoF: What’s the name of your new album sir?
BM: Money Equals Magic.
PoF: Tell me about it.
BM: I don’t know it’s a rock album . . .
SLM: This is the fucking funniest album cover.
*We interrupt the interview while Scott starts pulling out some of my vinyl. In this case, DAS OATH’s “Das Oath 9” (Coalition Records); which comes with a 12 page color booklet w. some ‘interesting’ pictures.
PoF: Hold on, you need to open the liner notes. Seriously, it’s fucking ridiculous.
SLM: Yeah I saw it.
PoF: Bobby, what do you think of Das Oath?
BM: They rock pretty hard.
PoF: Do you like trannies?
BM: (laughs) Not particularly.
SLM: Oh my god.
PoF: Oh my god.
BM: Oh my god.
SLM: Sweet fuckin’ jumping, feathery Jesus. This is so disgusting. This is so rad. These guys have real fuckin’ balls.
PoF: You think (Das Oath) has too much free time.
SLM: No, they have balls. They really stuck to a very perverse, disgusting idea.
PoF: Any plans for Attractive and Popular in the future?
SLM: No.
BM: Keep it rockin’.
SLM: Keep it hummin’ in that hole, buddy.
PoF: Anything to your fans for next week?
BM: Keep it rockin’.
PoF: Keep it rockin’ you hear it from me. Good night.
