Larry Bird is famous for being one of the most ruthless competitors and trash talkers in the history of the NBA. You already knew this, in all likelihood, but it’s an important thing to remember as you listen to the following story Jamal Mashburn told during a cameo on the Knuckleheads podcast.
Mashburn was a guest of Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson, and recalled being a member of the Select Team that famously scrimmaged against the Dream Team before the latter went to Barcelona and annihilated everyone at the 1992 Olympics. A well-documented element of this is that the Select Team beat the Dream Team in a scrimmage, and as Mashburn tells it, that infamous game happened after Bird told those college players, “Get some f*ckin’ rest, it’s gonna be a long week.”
One player on the select team, Rodney Rogers, kept this in mind after they beat the Dream Team, so after everyone went back to the hotel, Mashburn claims Rogers got Bird’s attention and said, “You ain’t hit a jumper since ’84.” You can probably guess what happened next.
Lesson learned: Don’t trash talk Larry Bird.
Hear @jamalmashburn tell the story of facing the Dream Team in college.
— The Players’ Tribune (@PlayersTribune) June 29, 2021
“The next day, we came in, and I’d never seen this, and this was when I was like, ‘This is a different breed,’” Mashburn said. “Magic Johnson fed Larry Bird the ball probably about eight times in a row down court. Larry Bird got the ball on Rodney Rogers, and every time he was about to make a move, he told him what he was going to do.”
As Mashburn recalled, Bird scored every time he did this, then left the court and said, while laying down, “Young fella, look like ’84, huh?”
Let this be a lesson to all of us: If you ever get the opportunity to talk trash to Larry Bird, don’t.
Hamilton set the American Revolution to music. Matt Thompson is setting it on fire, throwing fireworks on the pile while werewolves and founding fathers with chainsaw hands dance. Welcome to an utterly bonkers rewriting of American history at a time when large portions of the country seem susceptible to believing utterly bonkers rewritings of American history. But let’s not talk politics. America: The Motion Picture wasn’t created as a response to the devaluation of facts. As director (and Archer co-creator) Matt Thompson tells us, “wouldn’t it be cool if this is how it went” became a guiding philosophy. And so beer replaces tea at the Boston Tea Party and George Washington and Abe Lincoln are besties.
A project ten years in the making from the writer (Dave Callaham) behind some of this moment’s most accomplished big-budget comic book epics (Shang-Chi and Wonder Woman: 1984) the animated America: The Motion Picture (which is available to stream now on Netflix) goes big with action filled sequences while featuring a Rushmore-esque (I’m shameless!) voice cast. Thompson raves about Channing Tatum’s (George Washington) “boundless energy,” how Andy Samberg (Benedict Arnold) is a “rifle of fun,” and how Jason Mantzoukas (Samuel Adams), Olivia Munn (Thomas Edison), Raoul Max Trujillo (Geronimo), Simon Pegg (King James), and others made the characters their own. But while this is, essentially, an All-Star comedy smash em-up, there’s also an effort to make you care about these ridiculous versions of characters you barely remember reading about. Below, we talk with Thompson about that, messing with history, and whether there’s more story to tell.
Somewhat predictably, this has landed squarely in the midst of a moment of alt-history and nationalistic propaganda.
We’re just coming at this through a comedic lens. We wanted to do a revisionist take on the founding of America as if was being told by an idiot.
As it often is.
Yeah. We just found it funny. What would happen if George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were best friends and they went to Ford’s Theater and Benedict Arnold, their other best friend, turned into a werewolf and bit off Lincoln’s head? And that’s what started the American revolution? We found that to be very funny and we took that ball and went with it from there.
There are some side characters that get roped into this, to a certain extent. And if you have a bad memory and you’ve been away from formal education for a long enough time, there are some things, aside from the werewolf, where you almost forget the exact details. You kind of play with that a little bit.
Yep. Very much so. A very good example of that is, Simon Pegg does an awesome job as King James, who is fighting against the colonists who are trying to found America. We didn’t fight against King James. [Laughs] But we stuck with King James as the name because we wanted to see how well people would even know that.
Yeah, and I didn’t. It’s canon now, I guess.
There are so many things in the movie that are rooted in truth, but then it takes a severely different turn. And we found that to be great because it wasn’t just that we were making fun, but it was also, wouldn’t that be cool if that’s the way that it went? Wouldn’t that be a cooler starting place for America, if you had Sam Adams and he was the inventor of beer and beer is what we were using in our fight against the British instead of tea? So yeah, sure, the Boston Tea Party is in there, but our Boston tea party takes place on King James’ boat, the Titanic. And it’s not just a tea party, it’s how we’re getting beer into the conversation. And so all of those slightly adjacent things were very amusing to us.
If this is popular enough, in 50 years’ time, once the haze of history occurs, people may just think, “yeah, the tea party happened on the Titanic. It was a massive rager, and there were werewolves among us back then.”
If I can convince people that a werewolf and chainsaw hands on George Washington were part of what was the founding of America, my job here is complete.
What’s the kind of order to the chaos here? Were there any rules of the road? Anything you didn’t want to touch?
Dave Callaham, the writer, had one rule, which was for him, it was no research. He just wanted to not necessarily know exactly what happened. And so there’s actually a nod to him saying that to me over and over again, when King James lands in America, he says, “Oh, has George Washington not read the rules?” And we pan up to a list of ten rules that King James was trying to tell the colonists, and one of them was no research. And so that was Dave’s number one rule about how he wanted to do this.
And I agreed with him, but at the same time, my number one rule was, at the end, wouldn’t it be better, even if… comedically it’s very silly, that we started from this place. Would it be better if George Washington, as our leader, was a person that listened to all voices in the end, who learned, and who came to understand that we were better together — all races, creeds, colors, sexual orientations? And that was my feeling, which was, it’s a revisionist tale, so at least in the comedy, say what you hope for.
Obviously, you’ve done a ton of directing on animated projects before, but this is your first film. What were the surprises for you during this process?
I thought when I entered into this three years ago, that this was just going to be like making three episodes of Archer, back-to-back. And boy, was I wrong. I basically was afforded the right to go to film school to figure out why this is different, and I was surrounded by an incredible team. I’ll never forget, I screened the movie for my partners a handful of times over the last couple of years. And I was screening the movie for Phil Lord and Chris Miller (they were integral to me making sure the movie had heart and that it pulled me through and that I really cared about the characters instead of just making jokes) and it was a Monday morning. And Sunday night, I had watched them accept the Oscar for Spider-Man: Into TheSpider-Verse. And I’m sitting in this room with them, less than 12 hours after they accepted an Oscar for the best-animated feature going, “Boy, I should probably listen.”
The number one thing that I learned was yes, we have the most insane, crazy jokes that we’re doing. From dinosaur ranchers, to the sinking of the Titanic, to chainsaw arms, whatever. But make sure you care about the characters, make sure that they have clear goals set out and that you want to root for them and you want to see them win and succeed. And so hopefully, you get to see that Lord and Miller part that they greatly helped put into this movie.
Is this something you want to do more of?
We actually have a loose one-pager about how to continue this as a television series, but I’m not sure if everything’s going to come together correctly or not, but we have been talking about how we could evolve this passage. But first, right now, we just want to see what America’s reaction to it is. I just want to see if people react to it. I think one of the big problems that I’ve run into over the years is just, do people even know that it’s there? There’s so much product out there. And so first, we just need to see, is this a tale that people enjoy hearing? I hope so. I want to hear more stories about the giant Paul Bunyan battling the giant Big Ben. So first of all, just want to see how that goes.
‘America: The Motion Picture’ is currently streaming via Netflix.
After breaking through with their 2020 debut, Moveys, indie shoegazers Slow Pulp released their new 7″,Deleted Scenes, and announced a fall North American tour. The news arrives with a video for the new song, “Iowa,” starring lots of jellyfish. The song is a reimagined version of their acclaimed single, “Idaho.” This version doubles down on the exquisite “Stumbleine” guitars but submerges Emily Massey’s clarion vocals into a lower pitch.
Massey, along with bassist Alexander Leeds, drummer Theodore Mathews, and guitarist Henry Stoehr, formed Slow Pulp the old-fashioned way: as childhood friends. The last member to join was singer/guitarist Massey, who was previously training to become a professional ballerina before becoming an indie-rock singer/guitarist.
Slow Pulp will be performing songs from their debut for the first time on tour this fall, with support from acts like Girl K, Mamalarky, and Strange Ranger. Tickets are for sale on the band’s website. See the full list of dates below.
Caleb Vanden Boom
11/04 — Madison, WI @ Majestic Theater *
11/05 — Milwaukee, WI @ Colectivo *
11/06 — Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry *
11/09 — Denver, CO @ Globe Hall #
11/10 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court #
11/12 — Seattle, WA @ Barboza #
11/13 — Vancouver, BC @ The Biltmore #
11/14 — Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios #
11/16 — San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill #
11/18 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo #
11/19 — San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar #
11/20 — Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar #
11/22 — Austin, TX @ The Parish #
11/23 — Dallas, TX @ Ruins #
11/30 — Indianapolis, IN @ The Hi-Fi ^
12/01 — Columbus, OH @ Big Room Bar ^
12/03 — Nashville, TN @ The High Watt ^
12/04 — Atlanta, GA @ The Earl ^
12/05 — Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle ^
12/07 — Washington, DC @ Songbyrd ^
12/08 — Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s ^
12/10 — Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere – Zone One ^
12/11 — Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall ^
12/12 — Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground Sideroom ^
12/14 — Toronto, ON @ The Garrison ^
12/15 — Cleveland, OH @ Mahall’s ^
12/16 — Detroit, MI @ El Club ^
12/17 — Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall*
* with Girl K
# with Mamalarky
^ with Strange Ranger
The Deleted Scenes 7-inch is out now digitally, and will be available physically on 11/12 via Winspear. Pre-order the vinyl here.
It’s easy to call Donald Trump the [Comic Book Guy voice] worst. president. ever. But that would be incorrect: he’s only the worst living president.
C-SPAN asked 142 historians and professional observers of the presidency to rank every president of the United States of America in several categories, including Pursued Equal Justice For All, Economic Management, and Performance Within Context of Times. Trump’s best showing was in Public Persuasion, where he placed 32nd. Among all presidents in all categories, he finished #41 out of 44 (Joe Biden was not included and Grover Cleveland, who was elected to two nonconsecutive terms, only counts once).
Historians rate Trump as the worst president in history on two of 10 qualities, “moral authority” and “administrative skills.”
Since 2000, C-SPAN has taken the survey each time there has been a change in administrations. The public affairs network, known for its gavel-to-gavel coverage of the House and Senate, said that in this year’s survey, it significantly increased the number of historians participating and their diversity in race, gender, age, and philosophy.
The only presidents to rank lower than Trump are Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and in last place, James Buchanan. Tough break for a terrible POTUS. He finished with a meager 227 points compared to 312 for Trump and 897 for Abraham Lincoln (#1). The rest of the top five goes George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, while Barack Obama ranked the highest among living presidents (#10) followed by Bill Clinton (#19), Jimmy Carter (#26), and George W. Bush (#29).
Meanwhile, the great-great-great-great-whatever grandkids of William Henry Harrison, who died 32 days into his term, can sleep easy tonight knowing that he finished one spot ahead of Trump.
After years of public court hearings about her legally-appointed conservatorship, Britney Spears made her first on-the-record comments about her situation last week. The singer called the conservatorship “abusive” and claimed that it is restricting a number of her personal freedoms, like being able to get married and remove her implanted birth control. In the past, Spears’ lawyers have claimed the singer has taken issue with her father being her co-conservator, and now, he has responded to Spears’ claims.
According to a report from TMZ, Spears’ father, Jamie, denies being the one who is control of her personal life decisions like being on birth control and having limited time with her boyfriend. Jamie says he’s responsible for the singer’s finances, and co-conservator Jodi Montgomery has been at the helm all of her day-to-day decisions for nearly two years.
TMZ’s report notes that Jamie says he hasn’t spoken directly to Spears in a long time since “he has been cut off from communicating with her.” Jamie allegedly blames Montgomery for Spears’ discontent, and alleges the court never found her unfit to make medical decisions for herself. In other words, Jamie claims that Spears is legally allowed to make the decision remove her birth control independently from Montgomery. TMZ includes a line from legal documents that allege: “Ms. Montgomery has been fully in charge of Ms. Spears’ day-to-day personal care and medical treatment, and Ms. Montgomery has made all decisions related to those matters.”
Jamie’s lawyer reportedly claims that he actually called for the court to investigated the claims his daughter made about her conservatorship last week:
“Mr. Spears believes it is important for the integrity of the conservatorship proceedings and in the best interests of Ms. Spears for the Court to order an investigation into the issues and claims raised by [Britney] at the June 23, 2021 status hearing. […] Either the allegations will be shown to be true, in which case corrective action must be taken, or they will be shown to be false, in which case the conservatorship can continue its course. It is not acceptable for Conservators or the Court to do nothing in response to Ms. Spears’ testimony.”
After Spears went public about her conservatorship last week, there has been an outpouring of support for her. Her sister Jamie Lynn made a statement of support, and celebrities like Christina Aguilera and even Stephen Colbert shared similar sentiments.
In a wide-ranging interview ahead of her work in five films for the Cannes Film Festival, Tilda Swinton addressed the “hot, sticky, gnarly moment” that occurred when her casting as the Ancient One in Doctor Strange stirred up criticism of whitewashing for the Marvel movie. While Swinton feels that the incident was “necessary for the industry to move forward,” she now admits that her handling of the situation was not the best, particularly the way she reached out to comedian Margaret Cho and asked her for help in understanding the situation, which Cho found “weird” at the time.
“I made a questionable decision to reach out to somebody in a certain way, which was naive and clearly confusing, because their misunderstanding came about because of it,” Swinton told Variety. “I was embarrassed that I had maybe gone up a blind alley in starting the correspondence in the first place — maybe I had confused matters — but beyond that, I have zero regrets.”
Back in December 2016, Cho famously revealed the details of the call with Swinton, who asked that she not tell anyone about the conversation. Instead, Cho aired her thoughts on the Bobby Lee’s TigerBelly podcast, and the details were not great. Via Vulture:
“It was a long fight about why the part should not have gone to her. That’s what I thought: The part should not have gone to her,” said Cho. “We’d fight about it and basically it ended with her saying, ‘Well I’m producing a movie and Steven Yeun is starring.’” (This is no doubt a reference to Bong Joon-ho’s upcoming film Okja in which Swinton stars with Yeun.)
“Oh, like I have a black friend,” Lee joked.
“It was weird because I felt like a house Asian, like I’m her servant,” Cho said.
As Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness began production, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige recently addressed the Ancient One controversy, and he, too, admits it could have been handled better.
“We’re not going to do the cliché of the wizened, old, wise Asian man,” Feige explained to Men’s Health. “But it was a wake-up call to say, ‘Well, wait a minute, is there any other way to figure it out? Is there any other way to both not fall into the cliché and cast an Asian actor?’ And the answer to that, of course, is yes.”
LeBron James is keeping himself busy following a rare early exit from the NBA playoffs. With the release of Space Jam: A New Legacy coming up in July, he’s doing everything he can to promote the movie. One such way is to enter into the world of gaming — James has multiple gaming-related partnerships coming, such as an arcade beat’em up and a recently-announced collaboration with Candy Crush.
One of the most popular mobile games ever, Candy Crush is a simple but highly addictive: Match three candies together to crush them and earn points, and create combos so those candies will be crushed for higher points. Now, players will be able to, for a short time, play Candy Crush with LeBron James, Bugs Bunny, and all their favorite Space Jam heroes. Also, some of the candies are now basketballs, which is a very nice touch.
YouTube
This may sound a little weird to some, but one-time events like this are really common in long-running games, especially in the mobile market. It’s a way to not only bring in some new players, but to also keep longtime players interested in seeing what new events will be popping up as they play the game. Kids will love it and people who are fans of LeBron might give the game a try because of it, making this a win for everyone.
There’s a lot going on in Disney’s Jungle Cruise. Even aside from the story itself (based upon the theme park ride), the biggest showpiece here is the cast, all with larger-than-life performances. Heck, the last trailer had Emily Blunt punching The Rock and Jesse Plemons firing a torpedo at The Rock after brandishing a German accent and shouting, “Hallöchen!” Well, The Rock (sort-of) gets his revenge with this newest trailer, which introduces The Skipper, who’s guiding people down the river in his ramshackle vessel through all sorts of life-threatening obstacles. And we’ve got Paul Giamatti doing his own brand of very huge accent work while pointing toward either a white parrot or a cockatoo. Does it matter which one is more accurate here? Nope, because these actors are all putting on the biggest performances possible, and it’s a welcome sight during a time where we’ve missed movies.
Naturally, The Rock had to go full-on The Rock in the intro by trolling his leading lady and pretending not to know her name. It’s a joke that threatens to run thin, but since this entire production is so campy, we’ll let him roll with it. Also, Emily Blunt’s the one who’s having a real moment these days with the so-tense-it-makes-your-stomach-hurtA Quiet Place 2, and this movie that’s guaranteed to (at least) run well on Disney+ with a decent theatrical take, too. Big actors, big roles, big set pieces. Check, check, and check.
From the film’s synopsis, which refers to Blunt’s professor character:
Lily is determined to uncover an ancient tree with unparalleled healing abilities — possessing the power to change the future of medicine. Thrust on this epic quest together, the unlikely duo encounters innumerable dangers and supernatural forces, all lurking in the deceptive beauty of the lush rainforest. But as the secrets of the lost tree unfold, the stakes reach even higher for Lily and Frank and their fate—and mankind’s — hangs in the balance.
Disney’s Jungle Cruise also stars Edgar Ramírez and Jack Whitehall. The film releases in U.S. theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access on July 30, 2021.
Megan Thee Stallion is giving away a million bucks — but there’s a catch. In her new #CashAppForHotties campaign, Megan has partnered with Cash App to give away $1 million worth of stock to increase investing awareness and encourage participation in the stock market.
In an accompanying video explaining the campaign, Megan says, “Me and my thriving empire, Hot Girl Enterprises, have teamed up with Cash App to teach you everything I learned on the way up about money and how you can build your own empire.” She breaks down such concepts as fractional shares and diversification, reassuring viewers that “buying stocks isn’t only for the big players.”
“Buying stocks seems complicated, but really it’s a pretty simple process,” she continues. “The more you educate yourself the more equipped you’ll be to navigate investing. With my knowledge and your hustle, you’ll have your own empire in no time.”
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
In a moment of disarming nonchalance, venerable punk drummer Bill Stevenson wants to make sure that he won’t be on camera for our Zoom interview. Otherwise, he would have to do what he calls a nya – a method of grooming wherein you yell the word “nya” while pulling out a nose hair to prevent yourself from crying. Milo Aukerman, vocalist and cartoon mascot for legendary punk band The Descendents, laughs and nods along. We’re here to talk about the band’s new album 9th & Walnut. Well, actually, the album isn’t really new. It’s technically new but it’s also older than any Descendents release ever. Does that make sense?
Named after the band’s first-ever practice space, the tracks on 9th & Walnut were penned nearly 40 years ago, but “by the time we kind of got competent as players, and by the time we figured out who we were and what we wanted to sound like, we were sort of sick of all those songs and we had written new ones,” remembers Stevenson, who joined the band alongside principal songwriters Frank Navetta and Tony Lombardo in the late 1970s. Thus, the tracks were shelved for nearly 25 years, only to be unearthed when the band’s original members came together in 2002 to jam out their first-ever songs and finally put them to tape.
After those sessions, the tapes remained on a shelf for another twenty years while Descendents went their separate ways, during which time Navetta passed away in 2008 after slipping into a diabetic coma. The tragic loss kept the songs shelved for even longer, until Stevenson had a lightbulb moment during the pandemic. The band was already working on new music, and Stevenson decided to revisit the songs as a way to honor his friend and showcase the earliest days of the band. “We were sitting on it, and then it’s like, ‘Wait, why haven’t we released this?’”
Aukerman was the last piece of the puzzle to guide the songs to completion, and he was already primed and ready to go. “I had written a bunch of new songs and recorded those and I wanted to just keep recording,” he explains. “I was like, ‘Obviously we’re not playing shows. Let’s keep the ball rolling. Let’s record more.’” So Stevenson sent the tracks over with guide vocals for Aukerman to record over for the first time, 40 years after they originally pieced them together.
“It sounds cheesy,” Stevenson admits. “I’m always suspicious when movies have a prequel. I feel like they made it up. I feel like it wasn’t really supposed to be that way. I hope people don’t think that about us, like Star Wars one through three.”
But as with most things Descendents, 9th & Walnut brings with it a sense of unabashed earnestness that enables this exercise in preservation to fit in perfectly with the rest of the band’s lengthy catalogue. It’s a feat that most other bands would struggle to accomplish, let alone a band that’s been playing together nearly 40 years. Descendents have been underdogs from the beginning, and they’ve always beaten the odds. 9th & Walnut is no exception.
My conversation with Aukerman and Stevenson has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
So much time has obviously passed since the songs were written. What would you say were your main influences at the time that these songs were coming together in the first place?
Milo Aukerman: Well, these were all written by Frank and Tony, and so it was kind of a culmination of their influences. Frank was a huge fan of this band called The Last, and that’s a band that we all kind of worshiped back in that day. They were right from our neighborhood, in Hermosa Beach. So if you listen to The Last and then listen to some of Frank’s early stuff, you can definitely see there’s a throughway there. Tony was just a big fan of new wave and just early punk. And I think a lot of his early stuff has almost, to me, it has even a Devo sound because it’s very kind of, you know, bobby and herky jerky kind of stuff.
Bill Stevenson: Linear and angular.
M.A.: Yeah, yeah. That kind of stuff. So, yeah, I think the combination of the two of their writing styles really worked well, because you could get these different flavors together in one. And that’s why, when I joined, it hit the sweet spot for me, because I just felt like each of the things they brought to the table was such an important kind of musical element to me. So I just really dug it all.
So Bill, how involved were you in the writing of these songs? Did you come in afterward or were you part of those writing session?
B.S.: No, these were before I… before I knew how to really play a guitar. I mean, not long after it, I wrote “Myage” and “Bikeage.” Once I dug that bass out of the trashcan, from my neighbor’s trashcan, I wrote “Myage” and “Bikeage.” But no, I hadn’t written any songs.
So since these songs are from such a different era of the band, with you guys releasing them now, do you feel like this is kind of a separate standalone grouping of songs than what started with Milo Goes To College? Or do you feel like it’s a natural progression?
M.A.: It actually takes what used to be the standalone part of “Ride The Wild”/”Hectic World,” which really was standalone, and that’s no longer standalone because now you’ve got these songs to bridge.
B.S: I think the way I look at it is, if you go from “Ride The Wild” to 9th & Walnut to Milo Goes To College, in that order, it sounds like a very logical progression. But the anomaly was the Fat EP, because we were just on so much coffee on Bonus Cups, and Frank was taking all that speed, and now the songs are just ridiculous, you know? That’s what it was. So I think the Fat EP is the odd man out.
M.A.: Well, the other way to think about it is, on the one extreme, you’ve got “Ride The Wild,” and on the other extreme, you’ve got the Fat EP. We were testing the sideboards.
B.S.: We’ve never been gnarlier than Fat EP. That’s the gnarliest we’ve ever been. So you’re right. It was like we tested the sideboards and then we figured out what we sounded like. That’s a good one, Milo. I never thought of that.
So the last few Descendents releases have kind of dealt with a lot more adult themes. And now you’re releasing this music that’s the group’s absolute youngest form of songwriting.
B.S.: Completely juvenile.
How does it feel to be singing those songs now that you’re adults, going back so far?
M.A.: What it allows me to do is get back into that state of mind that I was in when I first joined the band. I would hear some of Frank songs and just be like, “Yeah, this guy, he’s really punk.” I was getting into punk rock, but I think when I heard Frank’s stuff, it kind of, for me, crystallized a particular punk attitude. Misanthropic, I guess, is the way you’d put it. When I re-look at that stuff now, I kind of realize how we were as people back then. We were all kind of loners at our school and we were all, I would say, fairly bitter about how our lives were going. Maybe even just from a social standpoint. We were all just kind of outcasts. And I think that’s the way I view it. When I sing those songs, it brings me back to a particular period where we were all just struggling to try to fit in, but also at the same time, didn’t care about fitting in either. It’s just kind of a weird period. We were all very young and trying to figure all this out. And that’s what I get out of his songs, for sure.
B.S.: Misdirected hormones combined with a pretty big chip on each of our shoulders.
What would you say now to the kids who wrote these songs?
B.S.: You kick ass.
M.A.: I’d say to Frank, “Man, you were ahead of your time.” Also, I mean, if you look at the songs, some of them are just really vitriolic, but then some of his songs are very kind of romantic as well. I think he captured both of those sides, and those are both sides that I was feeling at the same time. I’m struggling with being someone who could fit in, but also someone who is starting to recognize girls or just kind of think that girls existed at that point.
It’s an interesting line to toe, between wanting to be a punk rocker and set yourself apart from the group, but also, you’re still in high school and want to have friends.
M.A.: Yeah. If you’re that person in high school who just can’t find his crew, and is maybe on your own, a loner, you have a couple different choices. But I think one of the choices is just to kind of rail against the people who are kind of precluding your involvement.
I often feel like I missed out on the height of the best eras of punk music, whether it be New York City in the seventies, or Seattle in the early nineties, or whatever it was. Did I actually miss out on all of this stuff or is it just another instance of, “The grass is always greener on the other side?”
B.S.: I feel like you’ve missed out on one wave of it, but there have been thousands of great bands since then. But it was pretty bitchin’ to be 15 and be able to go out, and, in one show, see Fear, The Screamers, X, and The Weirdos, like all at one show. And then go another night and see The Go-Go’s, The Flesh Eaters, and The Cramps, or just whatever, for five bucks or however much it was in these little clubs. It was pretty, pretty cool to be there for that, but then there have been a million bands since then that have taken that and kind of produced something that was more than what they inherited.
What are some bands that are going right now at the height of their power that you think invoke that similar type of sensibility?
B.S.: Milo.
M.A.: What?
B.S.: You’re supposed to help.
M.A.: Oh.
B.S.: You fall asleep, Milo? No, I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding.
M.A.: I mean, I’ve really liked this band, The Pairs. I guess they’re just called Pairs. I feel like they maybe kind of mined a lot of the same area we did, in terms of, we want to play really fast and aggressive, but we want to have melodies and stuff in there. So that’s how I’d describe them. I feel like they’re doing something similar.
B.S.: Yeah. Or Wilhelm Scream. Audio Karate, Propagandhi. I’m saying, even after that first wave, just to go back not quite that far, I mean, the third wave was Nomeansno and Fugazi and stuff. There have been tons of cool bands, man, all along the way.
M.A.: The thing, too, is that you go into Spotify and you’re inundated by just way too much choice. Picking the needle out of the haystack has got to be difficult. You could spend days listening to a genre and try to figure out for yourself which ones you like and which ones you don’t, but that’s maybe one of the problems. But it’s also one of the great things at the same time. There’s so much music out there, but because there’s so much music out there, you got to listen to a lot of it to find what you really like too.
Is this album an exercise in nostalgia, or rather an exercise in preservation of history? I think those are two distinct things.
B.S.: It’s maybe more completing a task that had been long left uncompleted. It was kind of like, “Wait, why didn’t we record all those?” They’re good songs. Just because we got sick of them, that doesn’t mean that they should just go forever without anyone… Oh, so maybe the latter one you said. Not nostalgia, but the like, “Hey. People would enjoy knowing what the very first things we ever played together. People would love that.”
M.A.: It becomes a way of getting in touch with who we were as people, then. And especially who Frank was. He’s not around anymore to complete his legacy and this whole thing, but this was a way of kind of commuting with that part of our lives and with those people as they were then.
To me, the track “When I Get Old” is kind of like Descendents’ version of The Beatles’ “When I’m 64.” So my question is: Do you still hop on your bike and ride around town?
M.A.: [Laughs] If I could, I would. I can hop on my bike and ride on trails. That’s the closest I can do. A lot of the stuff in that song is actually a way of staying young through your actions. Because we’re all going to age, but it’s your actions that can keep you from really feeling older, and maybe aging too much. I mean, for me, just being in a band is a great way that I can just be like, “I want to stay young.” And that’s part of why I do it… What are you doing, Bill? You’re singing a song.
B.S.: [Singing] 13, 14. 15, 16… You don’t know the song, Milo?
M.A.: No, I don’t! What record is it on? Which of The Beach Boys’ record is it on? I’ll look it up. I’ll find it.
B.S.: Oh, it’s so cool. You’re going to love it, Milo. You’re going to love it. But then you’re going to know. You’re going to know the secret.
Follow-up question: Do you still hate cops?
M.A.: Well, right now, the cops are really… They’re misbehaving. The cops need to kind of clean up their act, is what they need.
B.S.: Well, I hate the system whereby the rich people are who elect the politicians, and the politicians are who pay the policemen’s salary, therefore the policemen work for the rich people. You could say, “Well, there’s good cops and bad cops,” but that basic thing is still true, regardless. That they are paid to enforce the goals of the rich people. To keep the bums off the grass, so to speak. So yeah, I don’t dig that.
M.A.: I hate the cops for what they’ve done in terms of race relations in this country. They’ve just really taken us back years and years. And that’s not just from last year; it’s from long ago. So yeah, there’s a very valid reason to hate the cops right there.
The Descendents’ earlier music was very apolitical in a punk scene where politics were very important. The songs were more about girls and having good farts. But recently, a lot of the newer material songs have been more about social issues. There were even some songs about Trump. What do you think caused that shift in what you were writing about?
M.A.: Well, that’s my fault, really. I can’t really say that it’s something I’m looking forward to kind of pursuing anymore. I think one thing that’s true in all of our music is that we always just write about how we’re feeling at that moment. In our younger years, we were feeling strongly about getting a chili dog. And then last year, or last few years, I’ve been feeling really strongly just about just how fucked up… There was no calculation involved. I can only ever write about what gets my dander up, and it turns out that that’s been this political situation that we’re in. And that’s where those songs came from. But I don’t feel like it necessarily redefines us as a band. What really defines us as a band is we just write about whatever we want to write about based upon our most extreme feelings, if you want to put it that way. It’s not going to be these political screeds from now until the end of time. I’ve kind of committed myself to not being that guy.
B.S.: In true Descendents form, my coolest two new [songs]… One is about my wiener dog named Slinky. And one is about my son, Miles. I’m not trying to think about those partisan politics and all that shit. It’s weird no matter who gets in there. They get old and they get old and they don’t get anything done. The whole system is fucking stupid. Wasting 30 seconds of my time talking about a big pile of shit like that is not interesting to me.
You said you’re working on new music. Do you have any idea when we can expect a truly new Descendents album?
M.A.: Well, Milo’s and Stephen’s are all done. We’ve recorded like 20 of theirs already.
B.S.: Karl’s coming over this week and I’m helping him demo his. I can’t finish songs. It’s always been that way. Do you look at how many songs I’ve written since I started the band? It’s like one per year. It’s so lame. 9th & Walnut served as a good stop-gap. It buys me some more time to finish my songs without anybody knowing. Milo’s and Stephen’s ones are kick-ass, their new ones. They wrote a bunch of really good ones.
M.A.: I think the good thing about these most recent songs, which is kind of a novel thing, is that Stephen came in with a whole bunch of music and just said, “Hey, I don’t have any words.” And I just wrote a ton of words for a lot of his music, and that’s just a new collaboration that we hadn’t really taken advantage of too much in the past. That kind of supercharged me to plow through a lot of it, because it was just such a new creative way of writing songs for me. Because a lot of times when we write songs, we all come in with our songs fully formed. It’s one dude’s song. And this was a good way of having the guitar player and the vocalist put their heads together. So that, to me, was a lot of fun. To kind of learn a new way to write.
9th & Walnut is out July 23 on Epitaph. Pre-order it here.
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