having some time again here's coming the next new post. Before I'll say something to it: Somehow I've got some problems with the functions of blogger, so I've just noticed that only one post was shown at the first page of this blog, without giving any informations why the fuck the other posts hd been set back to the second page, then the video displayed 'Error!' from time to time when you want to watch it, yeahr, and the then done work over of the post entry by me totally fired back, so yes, I'm now doing the post again and I'm trying to fix the problems (if they remain) sometime tomorrow or so, 'cause it sucks that the blog is showig only one post at the first page, and don't ask me why. But anyhow, tomorrow I'll start working on it, 'cause now I'm damn ired and want to go to bed some time soon from nowon. So yes: Now I'm doing the post again, workin' a litle bit on the pictures and loading also the video up again with also a new video that I've found that is really just pure gol, and I'm hoping that all will work out like it fuckin' should!!! So, now back to the primarly introduction words of this posting, and yes, enjoy it and I'm gonna workin' on the 'blog troubles' from tomorrow on, I promise to ya!!! Now back to the primarly post:
even the amount of postings isn't that high this month (and maybe this won't change for the rest of it) but so the quality is more than just good, at least if you ask me (but hey, it's pretty clear that I would give ya thi answer if ya ask me this question, right, haha;-)... but how-ever, that doesn't matter, 'cause I'm damn right with it... and there's nothing you can say or do against it, haha;-)...), 'cause here comes the next interview again and not just another 'Videos' post or so. So, yes, even things had been a little bit slowing down here due to several different reasons I'm still pretty satisfied with how things work out here on this blog. And the next new interview here is brandnew and it's one I'm wanting to do for quite a while now. It's one with the great American Oi! (or Streetpunk or Streetrock or Working Class Rock & Roll or Beer Drinking Rock & Roll, ...) band of THE BARONS from Delaware, U.S.A. and I just have to say THANX A LOT to Kurt for doing it and spending his time and his effort on working on it, and you know what, if you ask me he'd done a really great job, the interview is giving you a lot of good and interesting informations and it's also a great read thanx to the answers, hey, and that's all you can ask for of an interview!!! Ah, and like you all may (or should) know Kurt is also the CEO who's running "NECK RECORDS", a great and sympathic and authetic D.I.Y. American Oi! record label, so hee and there maybe some questions will be away from 'just' THE BARONS and will aim more directly at "NECK RECORDS", just that you're not wondering about it. I now won't spend any more words to the introduction of this interview, now you just start reading it and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as did and still do it. And once again: THANX Kurt!!! Oi! Oi! Oi!
"Night's winding down it's quarter to two, a few more drinks before your night is through. Last call's coming so you leave by the side. Hey bartender give me one for the ride. Stagger down the street to your parked car, nights like this make me scream for more."
*** THE BARONS ***
- American Oi! from Wilmington, Delaware/U.S.A. -
Hey, Andy, thanks for taking the time to ask the questions! I’m Kurt Beers, the bassist and music-arranger for THE BARONS. I write some lyrics and sing here and there, Bill Ferrell (singer) writes the rest and everyone in the band adds a little of their own flavour to the songs we put together. The current line up for the band also includes Wes Hickman on lead guitar, Rog Hall on rhythm guitar and Phil Kavanaugh on drums.
02.) Okay, being in THE BARONS I won’t spare ya the question about the bandhistory of THE BARONS. I think it’s also a pretty interesting thing, ‘cause for what I know (former) members of THE BARONS were involved in other bands, like for example in the great RED, WHITE & BLUE and also in THE BOOZERS. So tell us your bandhistory right from the start up to this very present day.
Formed in 2005, THE BARONS actually grew out of a street punk band called ROAD TO RUIN from Delaware who were together back in 2001-2004 (they released 4 tracks on a French vinyl LP compilation called “Chaos Days” from Narayan Records and had a few tracks on Neck Records’ “Oi! don’t pay the bills! Volume 2). We inherited their singer (Dusty Huellemeier, our original frontman and lyricist) and their drummer (Ed Reiss, Jr., who has done a couple stints with us and was a long-time member of THE BARONS). Both of these guys lent their talents to the recording of our “American Beer Drinking Songs” CD. ROAD TO RUIN’s singer/bassist, James Peirce, was a member of RED, WHITE & BLUE for awhile and he later went on to play in Delaware street punk band LABOR DAY SAINTS with Ed Reiss, Jr., but none of THE BARONS were members of RED, WHITE & BLUE. (Uhps, damn it, my fault... - Manslaughter Andy) Dusty left THE BARONS after recording “American Beer Drinking Songs” and went on to form THE BOOZERS in Tampa, Florida.
03.) Some words to the stuff that you’ve released already so far: From a D.I.Y. Demo to the great “AMERICAN BEER DRINKING SONGS” full length record you’ve released quite a nice number of records already. Some words to or about them, and is it justified to say that the mentioned “AMERICAN BEER DRINKING SONGS” record is something you might can call your complete discography so far?!?
Honestly, we’ve only recorded 20 songs, most of which you can find on “American Beer Drinking Songs”, but to have the complete collection you need either the original “Demo” or the Dim Records vinyl release (which has the “Demo” on the B side). There are some alternate recordings out there on compilations, but if I had to pick two releases that best represent us, it would be those two offerings. We tend to concentrate on live performance, rather than spending a lot of time and money in the studio, but I think we captured what we do live fairly accurately on “American Beer Drinking Songs.”
04.) Okay, what I think is funny: Why did you choose such an aristocratic band name like THE BARONS?!? I ask, ‘cause hey, I hope I’m not hurting you right now, but so aristocratic you really don’t seem to me, haha;-)!!! So, yes, what were the reasons why you choose this band name and is there any kind of deeper meaning behind it?!?
The name really gives us something to live up to, doesn’t it? I think it’s safe to say there’s no wealth or pedigree amongst our members, so like everything else about us, the name is tongue-in-cheek (a joke).
05.) You are releasing your stuff on your own label “NECK RECORDS”, as well as on other labels world wide, like for example on the german label “DIM RECORDS”, right?!? How’s the work going on, running a label in the States these days?!? I just ask, ‘cause it seems to me that all the big old labels from the 1990’s golden era of American Oi! music are today more dead than alive (for example: What the hell was the last release of “G.M.M. Records” and when did it see the light of the day?), and all the good new labels are pretty small (like for example “NAIL WALL RECORDS” and “OI! THE BOAT RECORDS”), while here in Germany at least five or six bigger Oi! labels and mailorders are sharing the market with each other and pretty much controling it, and there are still a lot of smaller labels working and doing a good job in releasing bands and supporting the music. You might can truly say, that it lokks all in all not that bad over here. So how is the situation in the U.S.A., from the perspective of an label boss?!? And how from the perspective of an American Oi! band?!?
CDs don’t sell very well at all in the US now and records are a very small, collectors’ market. Most Americans us I-pods, so we buy Mp3s instead. It doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to spend money producing “hard copies” of CDs at this point. Personally, I like to have a copy of a CD or record in my hand – it just feels more legitimate to me in that format, but I’m old school. We don’t spend a lot of money on artwork/printing for Neck Records releases. Most of the discs are laser printed CD-Rs that come in a plastic sleeve with a Xerox cover. We print 300-500 copies of each release. That’s probably all the hard copies the world needs and it ensures that we sell out of everything we do. What money we have to invest in a Neck Records release goes into the actual sound quality of the recordings (recording and mastering). If we do something we think European labels might be interested in, we try to license the music over there and let the professionals do a nice, full-colour cover CD or vinyl edition, such as the records we’ve done with Dim (THE BARONS and THE INCITED) and the MADDOG SURRENDER CD we produced for 4 Subculture Records. We trust both of these labels to represent us well and do a high quality edition, certainly much better that we can afford to do ourselves. We’re also currently working on making the whole Neck Records catalogue available through amazon.com as Mp3s, so we’ll see how much interest there is in digital sales. I’m sure if GMM and some of those bigger labels want to survive (if they’re even still alive), they’ll get into digital sales of their past catalogue more so than new releases as hard copies, if they haven’t already made this move.
06.) You’re also releasing the damn good “Oi! DON’T PAY THE BILLS” sampler CD’s on “NECK RECORDS”. Tell us something about them, your ‘label compilation records’. When did you have the idea to release them, and how do you choose the bands and who chooses the songs, etc. pp.?!? By the way, I hope more compilation of this series will see the light of the day ‘cause you’re doing with them a fuckin’ awesome job!!! So, is there already a thrid part planned by you?!?
The “Oi! don’t pay the bills!” compilations were a lot of fun to put together and they were produced cooperatively by all the bands involved. Most of the bands on the two different compilations have played together quite a bit and we’re all friends, so it was easy to present a couple of good CDs to show what’s going on with East Coast Oi! and punk now. It’s also a great way to promote the bands, while sharing the costs of the production. I’m personally pretty happy with how they both turned out, even more so with Volume 2, so I haven’t decided whether we’ll try to do better than the first two with a third, but we do plan to compile four early Neck Records demos together on one disc to be entitled “The Oi! Demos.”, which will be a limited edition, possibly digital-only release. (Sounds great, even I would love to have a 'physical' copy of it at home;-), but please keep me informed how things go wth it!!! - Manslaughter Andy)
07.) Right, back to THE BARONS and away from all this music buisness talk;-). Maybe a lot of guys will disagree but to keep it short and precise, to me you’re an American Oi! band, and a damn great one. But you’re playing also a very unique kind of sound. Working Class, Alcohol, Oi! and Streetpunk, Punkrock and Rock & Roll as well as sometimes some little Classic Rock notes, a great combination. So tell us about your influences, from the past to the present, and did anything changed over the years respectively what did change over the years?!? And had there any, hm, ‘musical rolemodels’ that had been a huge (and maybe ongoing) inspiration for ya?!? Ah, and with what kind of music you had been growing up?!?
We play songs to make people want to have fun and drink beer in a bar. Call it what you want, we’re really just a rock and roll band. I think we have a definite “East Coast” sound, considering that we all grew up listening to New York punk like THE RAMONES, THE DICTATORS and JOHNNY THUNDERS. At the same time, though, I think a lot of our other influences come from Southern/classic rock, punk and British Oi! We definitely have a very American sound, because we’re playing a lot of blues-rock riffs that have been a part of American rock and roll since CHUCK BERRY played them in the 1950s. Maybe some people don’t think we’re an Oi! band because we never actually shout “Oi!” in any of our songs? (Haha, that's easily possible:-), just take a look at all thse idiots out there!!! - Manslaughter Andy)
We consider it an honour to be compared to THE WRETCHED ONES. They are one of our favourite bands and we’ve played with them quite a few times. Good people, great band. We play with a lot of New Jersey bands and we have a lot of friends over there. It’s not hard to understand why we would have the same sort of sound, since you’ll find the “East Coast Sound” from New York/New Jersey all the way down to Atlanta, Georgia with bands like THE LOOSE SKREWS and Tampa, Florida with bands like THE BOOZERS. One difference is that THE BARONS definitely have more of a Southern rock influence than a lot of East Coast Oi! bands. Hopefully, that adds a little originality to our sound.
09.) Hm, and what do you think in general of being compared to THE WRETCHED ONES and “HEADACHE RECORDS” being THE BARONS and “NECK RECORDS”?!?
Again, I have a lot of respect for THE WRETCHED ONES and what Pitt has done with “HEADACHE RECORDS”. They released some of my favourite music in the 90s, as did a lot of other small labels from that time. I like to think that “NECK RECORDS” pays proper tribute to all the hard working, Do-It-Yourself labels who have kept the music alive, just like “NECK RECORDS” has tried to do since we released our first cassette in 1987.
Even before we did a record in Germany with Dim we got a lot of interest in the band from people in Germany, so it’s out of respect for our friends there that we like to keep a German-language biography on our Myspace page and we also post German reviews there. You’ll notice a German theme in some of our artwork as well (like the beer stein logo). With surnames like Huellemeier, Feuchtmayer, Reiss, Hoster and Beers, you can guess we’ve had a bunch of Krauts in various line-ups of the band, but we’re becoming outnumbered because the newer members are Irish, so I guess we’ll have to start drinking green beer now.
“SOCIAL DISEASE” is the closest thing you’ll ever get to a “political” song by THE BARONS. I wrote that song after the Bush/Cheney administration passed the “Patriot Act”, which is a decidedly UN-patriotic series of “adjustments” to our American “Bill of Rights” that took away a lot of our civil liberties. It was an act of treason, as far as I’m concerned. The song was a vague comment about how the Government wanted more leeway to “spy” on Americans and limit our rights in a variety of ways to “protect us from terrorism.” The song is also a comment about poor leadership in general (which has been a big problem here for quite awhile, not only with Bush, but now with Obama) and the fact that Americans have become so politically polarized (you are either far right or far left anymore…no one’s in the middle). I guess I was trying to say that I’m not buying any of the bullshit and I will continue to stand in the (political) middle so I can keep a wary eye on both sides. (And that's the damn right approach to it!!! - Manslaughter Andy)
12.) “KILL YOUR TELEVISION”, no doubt about it, but what makes you so mad about it at all, haha, something special;-)?!?
Dusty, our original singer, wrote the lyrics to that. It’s an age-old theme in punk rock, I guess…the “idiot box”. It could just as easily be a song called “Kill Your Computer” because all the distraction and mindless entertainment we’re subjected to from the media is making us forget about the real issues in life (like having your own life, instead of living vicariously through morons on reality shows, for one example). Americans are obsessed with constantly being “on-line” and digitally “connected” and entertained. You know it’s gotten ridiculous when you can see a group of people walking together or sitting together and instead of talking to each other, they’re texting people who aren’t even there with them. It’s the same with TV…people just sit there staring at the tube while munching down potato chips, getting fat and accomplishing nothing.
Every band should have an “epic” instrumental track, don’t you think? I’m not sure how “epic” it is, but we needed a song with no vocals that we could throw into the middle of our live set, so our singer could run to the bar and grab us all a round of fresh beers during our gigs. And, yes, that’s an organ you hear in the song. We like to put some keyboards (played by our studio engineer Michael Lovett) in a few of our songs here and there. Michael played piano on “Haunted Trailer” and “Raw Deal” as well.
Delaware is a very small State, but our music scene has always been interesting. Aside from a handful of good Oi! bands, we always have some great punk bands and good clubs and pubs who promote live music. The bands and the promoters work well together because we’re all friends. Our scene is not overly political. People obviously have different affiliations here, like anywhere else, but it’s an “older” scene, so there aren’t a lot of young bucks who want to lock horns anymore. Our gigs are just big parties, really. Any band we’ve brought here from out-of-state will tell you about our hospitality. It’s something we’re proud of. I am currently promoting a Delaware punk band called THE KEEFS, who will have a European release out sometime soon. They’re the most promising new band right now (and you can hear two tracks from them on “Oi! don’t pay the bills! Volume 2”).
15.) Last question, coming to a close of this interview, what’s your favorite ‘case of brewtality’?!? Any american beers, or what the fuck else, and what do you think of german beers?!? Ah, and damn it, any secret hints that we all should have to know about, haha;-)?!?
We drink a lot of beer at rehearsals and during live performances, so, out of necessity, we have to drink the cheap stuff: usually Pabst Blue Ribbon or Shaeffer…the type of beer Germans wouldn’t waste time drinking. (Oh, too much honour for 'us', 'cause you wouldn't believe what 'we'- at least a lot of guys over here- use to drink, haha;-)!!! Manslaughter Andy) Delaware has a good brewery called “Dogfish Head” that makes specialty beers I’m sure you would appreciate. Brewpubs are pretty popular here as well, so you can get good fresh local beers, too. As for German beer, I prefer weissbier. Two of my favourites are Paulaner Hefe-Weizen and Weihenstephaner. My favourite Oktoberfest Bier this year is Weihenstephaner Festbier. I doubt I will ever find a beer I don’t like.
We’re writing a bunch of new songs now, so we’ll start recording sometime this winter. It’s been a couple of years since the release of “American Beer Drinking Songs”, so our goal is to release another album as soon as we can. Anyone who liked what we’ve recorded in the past should find plenty to like with the new material we’re writing, it’s still a mix of rock and roll styles, but some of the tracks will be a little more “traditional Oi!” influenced.
17.) That’s all for now from me, and again, THANX A LOT FOR THE INTERVIEW, great that you’ve taken the time for it!!! All the best from Germany, and keep in touch!!! Cheers & Oi!, Andy!!!
Thanks, Andy, we appreciate the support! CHEERS from Delaware.
Yeahr guys, that's it, that was the interview, I hope you had some fun reading it and that you've gained some more knowldege about THE BARONS. Now go and buy their records and give them the more than justified support, 'cause you know what, they more than deserve it!!! And that's also the same case with their label "NECK RECORDS"!!! Once again a very big 'THANK YOU!' goes out to Kurt for doing it!!! Cheers mate!!!
Now you get a very good live video clip of THE BARONS performing the immortal MOTÖRHEAD classick "IRON FIST" live on stage at the "MOJO 13" at a show with the legendary MURPHY'S LAW, so yes, just enjoy the great performance of THE BARONS, and damn it, I really have to see them live some day (soon) no matter where!!! Cheers & Oi!
THE BARONS - "IRON FIST" (MOTÖRHEAD-cover)
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