"And Begin," the first relentlessly instrumental, guitar-dueling, British via New Jersey-invasion track on the Mooney Suzuki's self-released, self-titled album, is kind of like your mother's voice?every once in a while you've just got to hear it. So we were a little disappointed to learn of its omission from their label debut People Get Ready on Estrus. Luckily, there are not only several new tracks in its place, but the band still sells that first record at shows, which is merely one more of a dozen good reasons to check out their act.
Frontman Sammy James Jr. took not one but two of the calls that interrupted our phone interview. At one point we looked at each other and mumbled, "Popular guy." And fortunately for him?popular band. The one thing we forgot to ask Sam was where the band gets those great tight-fitting, black leather, pointy-toed, low heel, zip-up-to-the-ankle Beatle boots. Several days later he informed us via e-mail that the Mooney have them custom made. Custom made? We thought you guys worked on a fucking apple farm!
Lisa LeeKing: Sammy James!
Hey, sorry about that. I was on the phone with the president of my record label.
LL: Oh, you mean Carl?
Uh, yeah.
LL: To me, the Mooney Suzuki has always been about the energy and intensity of your live show. The new record captures some of that, but falls short. Ever thought about recording a live album?
That's something we hear a lot. Not that the record falls short, of course, because most people think it's a stunning achievement. But for a live album, I'd want to record a whole tour and then recall only the finest moments.
Tanya Richardson: Like Bob Seger's Nine Tonight.
Well, for instance, I love the live version of "Kick Out the Jams," but I don't think it's a particularly good album. I prefer Back in the USA.
TR: You're joking! That album does sound more like you guys because Back in the USA was a return to early/Chuck Berry rock 'n' roll. So why are there are tons of garage rock bands like the Mooney around today? Is rock 'n' roll trying to get back to roots?
I don't think it's going back to roots. Rock 'n' roll is not something that happened, changed, got different and now can go back. Rock 'n' roll wasn't created and then evolved. Rock 'n' roll was a force that existed in the universe before mankind came along to invoke it, like fire.
TR: Now you sound more like Kick Out the Jams.
I'm saying you don't go back to it, it's just there.
TR: If something works you should tap into it, whether it was done 50 or 200 years ago. But the sound you have is very, I don't want to say dated, but it's 60s, and combined with the mod clothes... Do you worry about alienating a broader audience?
What is a timeless look? I picture Eric Clapton in the 80s, and you can tell he was trying to dress conservatively, but he's still wearing this oversized, padded pastel jacket with a frosty bleached mullet.
TR: You do dress like typical New York rocker/hipsters.
We do? Our look is so much less about "let's look 60s" than it is "let's look like nothing." And besides, it's not 60s. The Ramones dressed like this in the 70s and so did Kraftwerk. Kabuki theater in the 7th Dynasty...
TR: Okay, okay. Point taken.
LL: You site Howlin' Wolf and 60s beat groups as influences. Who don't you like being compared to?
The whole MC5/Stooges/Detroit thing, because 99 percent of the people who say it do so because that's been the thing to say over the last couple of years. It's like being a band in '93 and being called alternative. What does that mean? If we sound like the MC5, it's because we're doing exactly the same thing they were doing, which is trying to sound like James Brown, but being retarded white people with no skill.
LL: Who would you like to be compared to?
The Who, because they're why I wanted to play in a band. Tyler [guitar] and I both learned to play from The Hal Leonard Easy Guitar Songbook Who Anthology.
TR: Your drummer has a Keith Moon thing going.
When we first met Will he was coming off his Devo stage, and listening to a lot of early Genesis. He joined our band and went crazy, in that great Mitch Mitchell/Keith Moon/British drummer tradition.
TR: But has he run over his own roadie yet?
LL: Tyler got run over.
The last day of tour the van shat the bed. This guy at a truck stop showed us that if you get underneath the van and push in the linkage cable, it will start. We drove home with the engine on the whole time, even when we filled up with gas. At one point Tyler was alone and there wasn't anybody to turn the engine over when he got underneath the van. He put the parking brake on, and when he pushed the cable in, the thing went into neutral, the parking brake failed and the van rolled over his arm. His bone was ripped out, but he got up, ran back into the van and drove it into the parking spot...
TR: They don't make men like that anymore.
Right? So he parks it, goes into the apartment and dials 911. Then he calls me and says, "Um, I don't think I'm gonna be able to make it to sound check."
LL: What motivates you to get onstage and give it your all?
My old motivation was that it sucked being in a band, particularly in New York City. You never get any fucking breaks. Any opportunity we had we were like, "All right, we're gonna show these motherfuckers something they've never seen before. Really flip their wigs!" I was the rabid underdog. Then around Cavestomp last year, people started showing interest. At first it was like, oh shit, what's my motivation now? I'm not out for revenge!
TR: You'd think New York City would have the best local music scene in the country, but it's the opposite. Is it because the rents are so high and there's no place to practice? And is that why you guys live in New Jersey?
One of the big reasons our band has been able to survive here is that most of us live with our parents. But yes, especially since we've been on the road, I've realized why there's no music scene in New York. It's the most musically barren place in the world. It's a vacuum. The paradox is that in Athens, GA, you can work for two days at a pizza parlor and make enough money to pay $200 dollars a month rent on your eight-bedroom house where you can rehearse and park your van. Yet all these bands where it's so much cheaper to live do so much less! New York attracts people who're willing to bust their asses, but they go nowhere because they're running in circles. I know so many friends who are like, "Yeah I've got this band rehearsal and then that one and then I'm taking photos and I have a studio...so one of these things has to pan out, right?"
TR: Don't most of you work on an apple farm?
Tyler is the fifth generation of the oldest apple cider mill in New Jersey. We rotate shifts there. His parents had bands in the 60s and 70s. And you know, his dad has seen everybody at the Fillmore. They're very, very supportive of the band. That's where we keep the bus.
TR: "Maggie's Farm"! Very hippie.
Totally.
LL: How have you been received on the road?
When we play Southern places other acts take us under their wing. But I think there's enough dumb rock in what we do to please even the lowest common denominator.
The Mooney Suzuki play Sat., Oct. 21, at Mercury Lounge, 217 E. Houston St. (betw. Ludlow & Essex Sts.), 260-4700.