Feature Band: Ruth Ruth
Archived
No need to RSVP — they’re uninvited! NYC’s punk-pop trio Ruth Ruth has anchored itself into the swiftly running waters of alternative with its first single “Uninvited” off their debut LP, Laughing Gallery. The record spews highly energetic guitars and rhythm, neurotic vocals and lyrics that bluntly indicate messages of frustration! After shopping their music around small NYC clubs and being just another band, Ruth Ruth has achieved a level of success where they are now “in” the pop-culture community!
Such an odd name for a band, one might think. Ruth Ruth is an evil character from the Lily Tomlin film The Incredible Shrinking Woman. With this name, the band played around NYC, (including a weekly show at The Continental Club), attempting to build a fan-base while holding down typical day jobs to pay the rent. Guitarist Mike Lustig was a slave to a printing shop, drummer Dave Snyder was on the playlist at the Ciao Bella Ice Cream manufacturing plant, and songwriter, vocalist, and bassist Chris Kennedy filed in an office. Their rehearsal space? It was the small basement of Ciao Bella — free of charge, because who was going to complain?
Approximately a year passed before Ruth Ruth started to drum up a fan base and gain some industry attention-people liked ‘em! “We were looking for either a label or just the huge following so that we could support ourselves just playing around New York live,” Mike explains, in regard to the coming up of Ruth Ruth. Venture Entertainment and American Recordings picked the band up, and thus the journey began.
What’s different now that Ruth Ruth has scurried into the spotlight? “We’re playing to people every night — I’m not going to my job, which I hated.” Ruth Ruth is currently opening for Everclear on a national tour (their first), playing to a few hundred people each gig (once hitting Everclear’s home state of California, crowds of a thousand or more came out). Things that are the same with Ruth Ruth: The joy of playing live, headaches after the show, and sitting around in sweaty clothes after their set is done!
At the moment, the media wants a piece of the pie: Ruth Ruth is on the radio as well as MTV. Mike suggests that he is polite to the media and is content with the hype that it is generating. He says, “I am usually polite to people like that [media] but only because I had eight years of no one caring what I was doing — I was in a lot of other bands that never went anywhere. Now I’m calling you up — you’re going to write an article about me.”
It’s clear that Dave, the drummer, is not polite like Mike. When he uses profanity, it comes at you like a bullet. He isn’t receptive to certain questions — erhaps ones that aim at categorizing the band! Dave made it clear why Ruth Ruth chose Venture/American for support. The band has complete control in the artistic creativity department. A simple quote from Dave — ”I just want to make a lot of money and play a lot of music. If I didn’t make a lot of money, I’d still be playing.” He was adamant about the fact that Ruth Ruth wasn’t out of the hole yet and that even the phone interview was costing them money. I reassured him that his label mates, The Black Crowes, have it covered!
Mike on Chris: “I love his lyrics — they’re pretty personal. He’s neurotic, he’s not the kind of guy who will put his feet up and be comfortable.”
Dave on Chris: “Chris is afraid of vegetables; Chris won’t eat turkey clubs.” Chris lives in a quiet Bergen County, New Jersey — perhaps the appropriate setting for his profile, courtesy of Mike and Dave. NYC must be too hectic for him — he requires a more balanced environment.
Earlier, Mike was challenged with the question, what wouldn’t someone suspect of you after seeing you on MTV and hearing your song on the radio? He scrounged up the answer that he is a big Springsteen fan — that was pretty good, but I thought he had more to hide! I asked him again at the close of the interview session his response, “When you are writing the article, just think of this” — click. All I heard was a dial tone.
Read more from the SLUG archives here:
Feature Band: HAZE
Record Reviews: December 1995
