All of us at Allston Pudding ask a lot of questions. It’s time to turn the tables. That’s why we’re starting this new feature series “Bands Ask, Bands Answer.” BUFU Fest is coming up at the end of the month and with such a stacked bill, we want to talk to as many artists as possible in the next few weeks.
We kicked things off last week, catch up here if you missed it. We are letting bands ask whatever the hell they want and crossing our fingers for the best. Part 2 of this series features Boston bands littlefoot, IAN, Hurricanes of Love, idiot genes, and ACLU Benefit as well as the Brooklyn-based group @bbigpigg. Warning: things may get a little weird.
BUFU Fest 2014
April 25 & 26
at Cambridge Elks Lodge
$10-15 Sliding Scale For Each Day
Full lineup and Schedule TBA
littlefoot (Boston, MA)
Wes (The Channels) posed questions last week for Erica Sutherland of littlefoot
Wes Kaplan: What is your music's relationship with folk idioms (such as blues, country, celtic, what have you)? Is this relationship incidental or intentional?
Erica Sutherland: I don’t think [littlefoot] is any of those things. If we had to label our influences I would go with oldies and 50s and 60s rock, American girl groups like the Ronettes and the Shirelles.
WK: Do you keep up with mainstream music? What about "alternative" music? Anything recent you're excited about?
ES: I think my favorite band that’s considered mainstream now would be Beach House. I really like Mac Demarco, Frankie Rose, Frankie Cosmos…all the Frankies. I feel like most of the music I listen to is old or my friends’ bands like Roses and Way Out, I like keeping up with them. I was really excited about Free Pizza’s tape that came out.
WK: Any thoughts on why Boston punks are so adverse to dental hygiene?
ES: As someone who has smooched a couple of Boston punks, I can say, they are not all like that.
@bbigpigg (Brooklyn, NY)
Erica (littlefoot) posed questions last week for Jason Smallwood of @bbigpigg
Erica Sutherland: What is your favorite snack on the road?
Jason Smallwood: Garbanzo beans. It’s really cheap! I’ve developed an ability to eat them right out of the can. So it’s kind of healthy and they are a tasty snack. I eat a lot of things out the can. It’s kind of shameful but I’m a very utilitarian kind of guy.
ES: What would be your least favorite way to die?
JS: Holy shit. I’m going to have to go with falling into water and being eaten by a great white shark. That is absolutely, without a doubt, my deepest, darkest, fucking nightmare. Even just thinking about it right now is getting me stressed out.
ES: Which character from Grease can you best identify with?
JS: Oh man. I suck. I haven’t seen Grease. I’m going to say whoever is the coolest guy character that is not John Travolta. Whoever that is, that’s who I chose.
Allston Pudding: You know that means everyone who reads this will have a different interpretation?
JS: Well, then that makes it kind of deep, right?
Hurricanes of Love (Boston, MA)
Jason (@bbigpigg) posed questions for Frank of Hurricanes of Love
Jason Smallwood: Who in the band deserves the biggest smack and why?
Frank Hurricane: I be the only band member and I don't do much smack but drugs are off tha chain!
JS: What's worse, an incompetently crappy band or one that's merely mediocre?
FH: I think a mediocre band is much worse, I love bad bands!
JS: Are human beings in the future going to eventually get sick of all these computer screens and consciously choose to develop a more natural, harmonious living habitat for themselves, or are we destined to disappear into the machine as some have speculated?
FH: I don't think that computers are going to suck us in and rule us, ever! I can smash a computer but it can't smash me!
ACLU Benefit (Boston, MA)
Frank (Hurricanes of Love) posed questions for Noah Britton of ACLU Benefit
Frank Hurricaine: Are you influenced at all by the spiritual music genre of butt-rock? And if so, what is your favorite butt-rock anthem?
Noah Britton: My favorite butt-rock anthem is most of the stuff Scott Stapp performs actually as the duo that Frank Hurricaine is in, not Scott Stapp the singer from Creed. Maybe my favorite butt-rock anthem is “Bawitdaba,” but “My Own Prison” is really good too. Soundgarden is great. I don’t like anything that Creed put out after My Own Prison, that stuff is horrible.
FH: Do you like getting WASTED before you perform?
NB: Never. I got wasted once before a performance because I didn’t have any interesting ideas of how to make the show good. I played a really sad song that I had just made up and was so drunk that it was difficult to perform…and that made the show better.
Getting drunk before a show makes your pitch worse, your coordination worse, your ability to respond to the crowd worse, and it’s a crutch. That said, it can be a very useful crutch, like David Yao from Jesus Lizard used to get drunk before every show or he’d play a terrible show, I gotta respect that.
If I were in a rock group that played butt-rock, it would probably be a really good idea to get drunk before the show. It’s like Kimya Dawson, if I have a soda before a show, I’m wired. Don’t drink kids, unless you wanna get laid and party. That’s my advice to all the young people that are under 30.
FH: If you were a song on Pearl Jam's album Ten, which one would you be?
NB: “Black” because I am multi-ethnic.
idiot genes (Boston, MA)
Noah (ACLU Benefit) requested that we reuse Frank Hurricane's questions for Pete Bayko of idiot genes
Frank Hurricaine: Are you influenced at all by the spiritual music genre of butt-rock? And if so, what is your favorite butt-rock anthem?
Pete Bayko: Basically anything by Nickelback. Creed is a solid influence.
FH: Do you like getting WASTED before you perform?
PB: I don’t know if it’s so much that we like to but that we have to, you know? So I guess the answer is yes. We’ve got a couple memorable stories because of that, let me think of a chart-topper here…
We had this one time we were in Rhode Island and the bar was selling Jell-O shots for a dollar and that other shit, what is it called? Jungle juice. So obviously we were fucking blasted. Our bass player ended up flipping everybody off and running outside afterwards. Somebody comes up to him and starts to say, “Hey! You’re cool!” and he just yelled, “Yeah, Whatever!” and left.
Once our drummer passed out with a full order, like a fucking #1 McDonald’s meal on his lap, he tries to get out of the car and it just spills out on the road. Yeah, that’s just the reality of his life.
FH: If you were a song on Pearl Jam's album Ten, which one would you be?
PB: Obviously, fucking “Jeremy.”
IAN (Boston, MA)
Pete (idiot genes) posed questions for Ian Medford of IAN
Pete Bayko: If you are straight, what is the gayest experience you’ve had or if you are gay, what is the straightest experience you’ve had?
Ian Medford: Well, I’m straight. So…I used to be madly in love with Kristen Stewart. I don’t think that is a “gay experience” but I mean…I experienced it by myself. I would desperately stalk her, I don’t even know why it was Kristen Stewart. I think she’s just very tomboyish and that’s how I used to be so I admired it. I guess that’s my answer, I had a big crush on her. This guy was probably expecting the most rad answer, I mean if he had gotten Noah Britton to answer that, he’d have gotten what he was looking for.
PB: Can you tell me the difference between BUFU and FUBU?
IM: FUBU is a 90s soccer shoe or something, isn’t it made by Adidas or something? And BUFU stands for butt-fuck. It’s Ben Katzman’s butt-fuck.
PB: How much cheese is too much cheese?
IM: Oh my fucking god. No. I love cheese. I put cheese on everything, there’s never enough cheese. I swear, once I was trying to catch mice in my house. I got some traps and was putting cheese out and I was crying. I was so sad that I had to get rid of this cheese! These mice were ruining my life. That is how much I love cheese.
Stay tuned to Allston Pudding for Pt. 3 of this series.