Mean Creek is a band that definitely knows how to rock, discount but do they know how to roll? We’ll find out when they take part in Anna’s Celebrity Burrito Rolling series on November 18th. Allston Pudding caught up with lead singer Chris Keene to discuss the band’s burrito rolling expertise, as well as some new music, and the two headlining shows they have on tap for this weekend.
AP: You’re going to be taking part in Anna’s “Celebrity Burrito Roller Series” – how did this come about and what does it involve?
CK: They basically just emailed us and asked us to take part. We’re going to be rolling burritos from 6-8PM on Monday, November 18th at the Harvard St. Anna’s in Brookline. For every burrito sold during that time, 100% of the sale price goes to a charity called Pine Street Inn.
Were you familiar with Pine Street Inn prior to this?
Definitely – we actually got to choose the charity. They are a homeless shelter in Boston and we know they do really great work. Our drummer, Mike, has volunteered there a lot in the past, especially around the holidays.
I read that each burrito costs $10, which is great for the charity, but a little bit of a premium over a normal Anna’s burrito. Are you nervous about the quality of the burritos you’ll be rolling?
Yes! I’m pretty nervous, but hopefully they’ll teach me. I’m usually pretty bad at these sort of things. I’ve never made food at a job or anything like that – hopefully my band mates will be able to make better burritos than I will.
What about at home – do you cook for yourself? Maybe that will give you some relevant experience?
I can make cereal pretty well.
Ha! That’s about the extent of my cooking skills as well. So we can both agree that Anna’s is great – but what are your thoughts on fast food Mexican – like Qdoba or Chipotle?
Well I’ve never had Qdoba but I have had Chipotle. I don’t think of Chipotle as Mexican – it’s not spicy enough – it’s more bland – it’s kind of like American Mexican.
Going to have to agree with you on that one. Aside from being a celebrity burrito maker, you’re also in a band and you have a new album coming out in February – tell me about that
Yeah, we have a new record coming out on February 18th that we finished a little while ago. We’re pretty excited for it. We’ve been pretty happy with how the video for the first single has done too – it’s been posted on Stereogum and our friend from MTV wrote about it, so it’s off to a good start.
That’s a long wait between wrapping up recording and the release date – are you a little impatient?
That’s actually about the same gap there was for our last record, our label (Old Flame Records) likes to make sure there’s enough time to have everything in place and ready to go by then.
So you have two headlining shows coming up this weekend – one in New York and one here in Allston – you excited?
We’re very excited because we’re basically playing with our favorite bands – So So Glos, Earthquake Party!, Hard Nips, and also Heybaby at the New York show.
Sounds like Mean Creek is up to some big things in the near future. Any last words you have to say about burritos?
Burritos are great, they’re definitely one of my favorite things to eat.
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Check out at Mean Creek at Great Scoot on Saturday, and make sure to stop by Anna’s on the 18th for your very own celebrity rolled burrito. And if you want to find out more about Pine Street Inn, check out their website.