2013 sees Brooklyn-based punk rock act The So So Glos gaining even more praise and national attention with their new release, Blowout. Fresh off of their “Bring Back the Dudes” tour with fellow Tri-State rockers Titus Andronicus, the quartet has seen the new album praised in publications from Spin to Pitchfork, garnering new fans and show spots, including a date on David Letterman. Lead singer/bassist Alex Levine graciously chatted agreed to chat after their Richmond, VA show. The So So Glos had played with Titus Andronicus in Cambridge on April 29th at the Middle East Downstairs.

AP: So 2013 seems to be treating you guys very well so far. You’re just wrapping up your tour with Titus Andronicus tomorrow, you just announced a fall tour around the Midwest with Desaparecidos (I hope I’m pronouncing that correctly), and your album Blowout came about about a month ago and it’s getting a great response so far. How are you guys feeling?

AL: Pretty good! Everything’s going well. Yeah, we’ve had this record done for awhile, we’ve been working on it for about a year so it’s great to have it finally out.

You guys came to the Middle East in Cambridge back in April (29th) and had a great, energetic show with Titus Andronicus on the Bring Back the Dudes tour. You’ve been playing with them for years, how did you guys come to know each other?

We started playing small shows together when we were just starting the So So Glos. I remember the first time I saw them and I was like, “Wow, there’s another rock and roll band around.” Now, in the past five years I think there’s been a lot more punk rock, rock and roll bands starting out. But at the time in Brooklyn it was a lot of noise rock, a bunch of weird stuff, but we saw these guys doing something similar to us and so we eventually became friends.

Yeah, everyone can see you guys having fun onstage. It definitely seemed like the Bring Back the Dudes Tour was kind of an excuse to be as Brooklyn and New Jersey as possible, which was fantastic.

Yeah, the New York/New Jersey combination in the “Punk Rock 101” debate was like… like seeing two different styles of seeing a punk rock conversation. A lot of times where we’re coming from it’s like, “the world’s fucked but let’s try to have fun and make the best of it.” And like, you know, we’re fucked. It’s the classic punk rock debate.

Yeah. I think it’s curious when you ask punk rock bands whether or not they feel like they represent where they come from, like Best Coast with southern California or you guys with Brooklyn and New York because you can get tons of different responses.

[With us] it’s such a brash, in your face, New York thing. The whole Tri-State area coming together, really.

Did you always want to be known as a “Brooklyn” band or did that just come naturally?

Well, our band was born in Brooklyn around 1991 when I was about four years old, and we’re all brothers in the group. That kind of happened naturally, and now Brooklyn’s “on the map” right now with new bands coming out, so I think it’s overblown sometimes. But yeah, it’s a place where you’re from. Like any place, there’s an amount of pride that’s attached to your old place. Brooklyn holds a special place in our hearts.

Let’s talk about the album, Blowout. First of all, I liked how you started the album with the recordings of kids talking about Kurt Cobain and then ending it with kids playing some song. Is it safe to assume that you knew those kids?

Yeah, that’s me [laughs]. I was seven years old in like 1995, I guess we were let down by Kurt Cobain after idolizing him for so long. We wanted to start the album off with a “kill your idols, smash it up” nostalgia kind of thing where it’s just everyone kind of looking back, nowadays. It felt to me there was a little bit more soul in mainstream music, pop music. So we kind of made a conscious effort to dig back into our archives of us as kids during that time, and call bullshit on Kurt Cobain for giving in, you know? Blow it out. But yeah, we wanted to do that to introduce “Sons of America” as a metaphor for America, maybe.

Yeah, it definitely does fit that first track well. So how was recording Blowout different from the last two records? Was it different at all? Did you guys do something new?

Yeah, I think we try to do something different every time we record. Like, we can’t ever do the same thing again, even if we wanted to. But this was a good experience, because we got to get out of New York. We recorded in Philadelphia; it was literally just us four and our producer Adam Reich, who also is one of our oldest friends from Bay Ridge and produces all of our records. We went down to Philadelphia and worked with this guy, “Slick,” Kyle “Slick” Johnson, who’s this amazing engineer. So it was just us five and Kyle getting great sounds, and we just kinda had the vision, and it just fell into place in this simple way. We had complete and total freedom and the vision of what we wanted to do. It was different in the way that there was no one funding it, it was completely self-funded and independent of any manager, any label. So it was really just us dreaming, no one was breathing down our necks to do this. I think we made the record that we really wanted to make and that we needed to make during that time.

Well, it definitely looks like it’s working, you’re definitely getting a great response from this record so far. So, you guys founded the Shea Stadium venue in Brooklyn. How do you guys balance being an actively touring band while also recording and helping to run a venue?

Well, like I said, we had our oldest friend from Bay Ridge, Adam Reich. It was his real, original thought for Shea Stadium and brought us on board because we had done other venues like the Market Hotel a couple of years before the Shea. He kinda asked us to help out, which we of course accepted, but there’s just this…extended family at Shea. There really is family, it’s all old, old friends and a community that really holds it together. We’re just a part of that. But when we go on the road, there’s a whole other team that works there, and there’s…we’re really just a part of that team.

Yeah, so in that extended family at Shea are there other bands that you’ve seen grow over the years with you guys?

AL: You mean like bands that have come and played at Shea?

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean it’s like a launchpad at times for tons of bands who want to come and play in New York and play in an art-friendly environment. There’s so many bands that have come through… it’s generally positive because I think Shea treats artists like they want to be treated. It’s accepting.

That sort of homegrown environment is really important to you guys.

Yeah, it’s a family energy. It might not be perfect, it struggles just like everything else, but it’s that energy that we hope to put out on the door.

Let’s bring it back to the tour that you guys are just finishing up. What’s been your favorite place to play on this Bring Back the Dudes Tour with Titus?

Whoo, it’s hard to pick a favorite.

That’s how you know it’s good.

Yeah, there’s a unique energy in pretty much every town and it’s different every time. Since we’re talking about Boston, that show we had was really special. I mean, I don’t want to relate it to this that much, but the marathon tragedy had happened only a little while before and I could really feel that energy as we came in. I remember New York after September 11 and even the recent hurricane, and it was like…I think people were happy to get some energy out. You know, music is therapy, so… for me, it was like we were exercising some demons and frustrations, and you know that’s what punk rock’s all about. I dunno, any show where there’s a relief of some form of frustration or built-up energy is a good show. I felt like people let loose and had fun.

For that show you guys even brought in the Red Sox organist (Josh Kantor).
Yeah, he’s great. We love the city of Boston, as much as as there’s this little rivalry. I don’t know if it exists, we love Boston. Also, we get to bury the hatchet between the Mets and the Red Sox [laughs]. I always love it when we come into town with Josh and make amends. We’re all underdogs here. We all have a slight disdain for the Yankees, we’re all on this losing team of America that we still have hope for.

It’s great knowledge that no matter what our differences may be, we’ll always hate the Yankees.

Exactly [laughs].

Any final thoughts?

Yeah man, it’s great to be out there playing the record, and we can’t wait to do the next one. This tour’s been a wild and crazy ride, one for the ages. If people want the dudes to return, they’ll have to demand that they get brought back! We’ll see you next time.