Mickey Reece, aka El Paso Hot Button, is a huge fan of Billy Ray Cyrus’ offspring Hannah Montana, his own album When I Needed Sympathy (Little Mafia) and detests the term “one-man band”. A unique solo performance of catchy garage and punk tunes, EL PASO HOT BUTTON will be playing our FREE XMAS PARTY on December 20th at City Tavern along with ANTELOPE (Washington DC - Dischord), ATTRACTIVE $ POPULAR (Hot Springs - Gold Standard Labs), BALTHAZAR (okc) and SOBER (Central Booking) to dj between bands and after. Yes, FREE. $2 parking across the street in a garage. Happy Christmakah. Here is a recent interview with El Paso Hot Button.
Parade of Flesh: When I Needed Sympathy transitions between genres of soul, garage and punk throughout the album. I hear influences of Black Keys and even the Detroit Cobras; but especially White Stripes on “Modern Civilization” and “Black: Son of Death”. If people could only hear one track to sum up the album, which would you tell them to listen to? And why?
Mickey Reece: Seeing how I've been trying to create my own genre of dissonant punk blues metal I'd say "They Invented it Stupid" is the track I’m most proud of. If all the songs could have been like that one I would be even happier with the album but alas that's not what came out when I wrote the songs. I get a-lot of White Stripes comparisons but they're not really an influence at all. "Modern Civilization" is actually a rip off of a Blue Cheer song.
POF: How does the new album compare to prior releases?
MR: As a whole this album is probably better than my two previous releases. SSSnakes was a split so I didn't have room to cover much ground and Turtle Wars was a tad hokey. This album is much more mature.
POF: Yeah, . . .Sympathy is definitely better. What did you do differently this time around?
MR: I just made a normal album. That's what I did differently.
POF: Reverting back to influences; If you were to cover a song for a random band, what would it be and why?
MR: Probably something by The Fall because those songs are easy to sing. Maybe "Take My Breath Away". I sang it last night at a karaoke bar in Hot Springs. Bobby (of A$P) loves it when I sing that song. Maybe I would butcher an Attractive and Popular song.
POF: “Take My breath away”? I think of TOP GUN for some reason. But A$P, are excellent and have played for us before back in June 07 and you are about to play with them in Dallas in December. Have you toured with them before? Do you have any good stories about their drummer, Trista?
MR: I met A$P a year or two ago. We actually have kind of a history but I don't have much time to go into it all. I have not toured with them but I'm sure we will at some point when they can afford me. There's this place called Boogie's in Hot Springs. I saw A$P play there a while back and Trista ripped off her shirt to reveal her nipple tassles. The crowd went wild as they often do when they play their hometown. She caught her drums on fire to end the show. Later she cooked us dinner and cleaned up after us! Sweet girl.
POF: You have a lot of guests on the album. Do you/have you played live with any of them?
MR: The cellist on the album belongs to a really rad band from Norman called Forty Minutes of Hell. He looks like Frasier Crane and he rolls his own cigarettes. The chick singing on the album plays in this rockabilly band from Oklahoma City called The Oh Johnny Girls. She's very pretty, too.
When I play locally she actually sings that song live with me. Very cool.
POF: Pros and cons of being labeled a “one-man band”?
MR: I'd say the pros definitely out weigh the cons in being a one-man band. I get all the money, I don't have to deal with shitty band members and I don't have to get a bunch of dudes together for practice. The cons are that people call it a one-man band. That term has been tainted by blues/country guys who play for two hours straight in a bar using a kick drum and a hi-hat. That's what you've come to expect from one-man bands so I've tried to distance myself from that term. Half-Man/Half-Band.
POF: I actually wrote a 'unique solo performance' about you over the using the "one man band" label. You did appear on "Attack of the One-Man Bands" so you cant get mad at folks. So that means you are a fan of Bob Log?
MR: Yea I know. There's no escaping the "one-man band" term. I just think it hurts more than it helps. I've seen Bob 4 times over the past 4 years. It's been the same material every time. He needs to do a new album but yea 'm a huge fan!
poster by nevada hill
