Vans Warped Tour: July 1997
Archived
Telephone interviews with two Warped Tour bands were set up. Instead of separating them I’ll include them in the coverage for this upcoming “day long skateboard and music event,” to quote the Salt Lake Tribune‘s Lori “Little Christy” Butters. Along with the skate boards, Butters knows something about demonstrations from a few of the world’s best BMX athletes, rock climbers and inline skaters. Local skateboarders get the opportunity to compete again in the Vans Amateur Skate Competition, and new this year is the Mega-Pump Climbing Wall Competition. Water skiing and windsurfing are the big water sports in Utah. Are those lakes safe for skiing and surfing? The Surfrider Foundation will announce the local water conditions at each tour stop. The Foundation is also sending visual petitions to the White House and Congress. Send water samples to Johnny Depp, Surfrider Foundation, 122 E. EI Camino Real #67, San Clemente, CA 92672.
Spike & Mike will bring a version of The Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation for those who missed it at the Tower Theater. Another new feature of this year’s Warped Tour is the Locals Only showcase stage. I’ve heard that some kind of battle of the bands is going to take place to decide which lucky local bands appear on that stage, but complete information is lacking. Take a can of food to the food bank table and receive a sticker good for $1.00 off of Pennywise merchandise. In addition, a portion of the ticket sale proceeds will be donated to Camp Pacific Heartland, a summer camp for children who are HIV positive or living with AIDS. The Vans Warped Tour is a little more than skateboards and music.
Now for the music portion. I spoke with Rodney Sheppard, the Sugar Ray Axeman. Sugar Ray is back with their second Atlantic CD and high hopes for massive success. Hell, if Sublime can do it, why not Sugar Ray? Which brings me to Floored. David Kahane has produced both Sublime and Soul Coughing, now he can add Sugar Ray to his resume. Most people probably don’t recognize the band name because Lemonade and Brownies didn’t exactly light up the charts. Let me spark the memory. This is the band that held a “streaking” contest to promote their Lemonade and Brownies tour. Send in a video of a naked person running around holding a copy of the CD and the best one received a 1965 Cadillac. Record label hype? Nope. As Sheppard informed me a girl from Montana sent in a video of herself hitchhiking on top of her car, entering a restaurant and ordering coffee with sugar and shopping for clothes all completely naked. She didn’t take the Cadillac, she took the money and bought a 1963 Impala.
Angelica Cobb is an Atlantic Records publicist – actually quite a famous one, as I’ve seen her name in the “thank you list” of albums not released by Atlantic and in several recent books. She informed me that Floored was a great CD and she expected big things from it. That remains to be seen. On the East and West Coasts, the dancehall version of “Fly,” featuring Super Cat is a hit. Salt Lake City is always behind. Ini Kamoze and Shaggy are the only ones to break through the Zion Curtain with dancehall so far, but “Fly” appears on the CD twice, and according to Sheppard’s single featuring both versions was shipped to radio. The second version closes the disc. This version sounds a lot like Sublime. Sheppard doesn’t have a problem with the comparison. “We admire them and we admire what the producer David Kahne did with their most recent record. That’s one of the reasons we picked David Kahane because he understands having a variety of different styles of music, he understands how to put it all together,” Sheppard says. “If it sounds like Sublime then rightfully so. The guy who created ‘What I Got’ created ‘Fly.’ The song isn’t a Sublime song, but the way it was produced is simply because of David Kahane.” Sugar Ray is a little more than dancehall and Sublime’s producer.
There’s another charming little song on Floored. “Speed Home California” brought Jello Biafra with Mojo Nixon to my mind. Is it cow punk? Close, but “Cowpunk? Yeah, it’s sort of like the Vandals, another group we like and are friends with. Most of the band grew up listening to L.A. punk. I suppose that’s where that influence shines through,” Sheppard says. “Lyrically. We toured in Europe a lot. It’s about being in Germany in the dead of winter, at some club in the middle of nowhere and really missing home. Speed me back home to California. Of course it’s a play on ‘Sweet Home Alabama.'”
“American Pig” is an interesting title. What’s the story behind that one? “We’re making fun of ourselves. Recognizing that we’re from a culture of mini-malls. That came about from being in Europe. We go over there and see how set in our American ways we are. You get over there and it’s a whole different culture. It’s a culture shock. That’s what that song comes from. We’re calling ourselves American Pigs, we like everything in giant portions.”
As if all that weren’t enough the band has another punk song on the CD. “Cash” is another ripper with some rockabilly/punk guitar from Sheppard. “I need some fucking cash” is the major lyric. Don’t we all? Take the dancehall, the metal/rap hybrids, the punk and, besides “Fly,” the radio friendly “RPM” and “High Anxiety” and get Floored.
Sugar Ray started out playing frat parties in San Diego. Their name at the time was the Shrinky Dinks and their crazed live shows were legendary. The crazed nature of the live shows continues and their off-stage stunts, singer Mark McGrath reportedly did an entire interview with Bikini magazine while his right nut was exposed. Their drinking, friendship with Howard Stem, drug abuse, opening gigs for the Sex Pistols, Kiss, Korn etc. is all simply life as a rock ‘n ‘ roll band. They’ll play the Warped Tour Club Stage.
Social Distortion is playing on one of the two main stages. Mike Ness is the one always quoted, but Dennis Danell has been with him since the band released their first single in 1982. Mommy’s Little Monster, their 1983 release, is regarded as a punk classic today. The band was surrounded by West Coast hardcore, but the album has more in common with their forefathers, the Dead Boys and the Stooges and going way back, The Standells, than hardcore of the day. Social Distortion has covered Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Cash, The Rolling Stones, Willie Dixon and Ersel Hickey in the past. They’ve moved from punk to country-tinged punk to rockabilly-tinged punk over the course of their career.
At present the band is right back where it started – brilliantly played and composed punk rock that owes nothing to the power-pop, punk-hardcore-ska brigades. White Light White Heat White Trash is a sparkling diamond in bins filled with lesser works, Danell missed the first appointment the publicity people set up. He was off fishing. I’m certainly not holding it against him because if I had the choice of fishing or speaking with the “media” I’d take fishing too. Here’s what he said about his last Salt Lake City experience, “Pretty cool club, you know. Other than the fact that we had to load up all those stairs.” He was around the L.A. scene in the late ’80s and I couldn’t resist. Nope, he couldn’t remember Britton.
The press materials state that “Don’t Drag Me Down” is the new single and video. I sure as hell don’t know what’s on the radio, so I asked him if he knew about airplay. “I don’t really listen to the radio much and I’m not concerned too much with what’s going on with radio: It’s kind of depressing for me. The way the program directors nowadays just play the same shit over and over all day long.” That answers that question, but what is the video like? “Actually we didn’t do a video for ‘Don’t Drag Me Down .:” Ooops. Better tell the publicity end of the business. “We did one for ‘When The Angels Sing,’ and one for ‘I Was Wrong,’ but it was …sometimes we find it frustrating with videos too because dealing with MTV is.. .they’re thinking they’re so cool and hip, and they’re just as bad as any other corporation. They edit everything, and have censorship, and you gotta do this, and you gotta do that and we just find it hard to go out and spend the money to make a video and then they don’t even play it.”
An interview with Mike Ness was printed in BAM and the writer did the usual Green Day, Offspring bashing, so I asked Daniel how Social Distortion gets along with the younger punk bands. They’ve done dates with the Offspring and the Warped Tour has a host of young bands, “We’ll have to wait and see. I’m a big fan of Rancid and Green Day and stuff. We’re playing with the Descendents and they’ve been around forever. It’ll be good playing with those guys. I want to see what Pennywise is all about. I know they’re from around here, but I really haven’t seen too much of them, or really heard too much of them. It’s going to be good to see what they’re about. It’s always good to see new bands and fresh new talent coming around.”
Ness’ listening habits have been described elsewhere. He was quoted as saying that he draws inspiration from what he’s been listening to in the six months prior to recording an album. Does the guitarist share his taste and how about influences? “A lot of stuff I do. He’s been getting into a lot of obscure doo wop and rockabilly, which is pretty cool, but I’m pretty much influenced by everything I’ve ever heard. Not just in the last six months,” Danell says. “It seems to me that I like a little bit more contemporary bands than he does. I try to keep my ear open and see what’s going on.”
What does Danell do when he isn’t on the road? He already said that he liked to keep his ears open for what’s new. As it turns out besides fishing, motorcycles and mountain bikes Danell works in the recording studio. “I do a lot of studio work, a lot of recording – do some producing and engineering – things like that.” He’s planning to work with Automatic 7, a band with a Face To Face member. Mainly he works with local bands; bands he didn’t think I’d know. He does demo work etc. Who knows, maybe one day there will be a big name, a former local band with a CD in the stores listing Dennis Danell as the producer. As everyone should know by now Chuck Biscuits is the Social Distortion drummer. How is Chuck Biscuits working out? “Chuck Biscuits is killer. He’s outstanding. We’ve known him forever and we feel so fortunate to be able to play with him.”
Who else is visiting as part of the Warped Tour? I’ll list the names. On the two main stages look for The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Descendents, Pennywise, Sick Of It All, Blink-182, The Vandals, Face to Face, Royal Crown Revue, Hepcat, Reel Big Fish, Limp Bizkit and Tha Alkaholiks. The third stage, the club stage or the surf stage, whatever they’re calling it this time, has Millencolin, Low Pressure, 22 Jacks, Sugar Ray, Buck-0-Nine and Sun Child. I’d say the third stage is a good place to kill time. The bands aren’t well known and there’s a range of styles. Warped Tour arrives in SLC and rather than hold it at a stupid place like Wolf Mountain, the friendly, worn-out Utah State Fairpark is the location.
Read more about the goings-on of the 90s music scene from the SLUG archives:
No Doubt: The End of Solidarity is Irony
Rage Against the Machine
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