IDIOT CITY - Street Rock'n'Roll Throwing Haymakers

Your band is a great mix of Oi/Street rock and punk. I am reminded of all the great releases on Vulture Rock Records. Is that the sound you originally aimed for?

Richard: Well, yes and no. Yes in that, admittedly, I love that stuff. My absolute favorite music in the world is all that early Oi and street rock that still had a heavy rock n roll influence, as well as the proto-punk stuff from the 60s and 70s that fed into it. And then, of course, we tried to throw in some early American hardcore, too. I love stuff like Rollins-era Black Flag, the Adolescents, and Flipper, but wanted a more overdriven guitar tone like the Stooges, Radio Birdman, or even the tone on All Skrewed Up.

Your lyrics seem to be a combination of sarcasm and nihilism. Please explain.

Richard: Sometimes I look at the civil unrest in the US right now, and think, "I'm not really encouraged to have an opinion on this unless it falls into this really narrow spectrum of thought." So my response at that point is to kind of throw my hands in the air and take a step back. It's not the most enlightened approach, but I think it allows me to write more freely. On top of that, sarcasm and satire are great artistic tools. To me, in wanting to start a punk band, I thought repeating the same talking points over and over would be boring and accomplish nothing.

Your logo and band name work perfectly together in creating a visual of what you are about. What triggered using that band name and who created the logo?

Richard: I harbor quite a bit of ire for both the "right" and the "left", especially the more extreme versions of both. I figured poking fun at both would get under people's skin enough to make playing this music more interesting, and to be honest it's worked. Gabe came up with the name Idiot City and it fit perfectly. *NOTE from GABE; Actually, I borrowed the name from Matt and Stu (Folsom/Spirit World) love you boys!

Your first release was the Identity cassette. Please give us some insight of the tape. Is Low Hanging Fruit your own label? Also, what is the meaning behind the outrageous Abbey Road cover?

Gabe: Low Hanging Fruit is my own label, the tape was my first release. We made 50 copies on green and then made 50 more on blue, copies are available at Vinyl Edge records and Deep End Records. These songs were some of the first songs written by Idiot City and have a pretty rough feel to them. We were trying to come up with the silliest thing we could think of for the cover and Richard doing cartwheels across Abby Road took the cake. Far too often Oi and punk bands take themselves too seriously; this is just a reminder that we are supposed to be having fun with all of this.

You recently re-released those songs on a 7”. Was it self released? Once again, here is a cover art question. Can you tell the story about how you had trouble pressing this record due to the cover concept?

Caleb: The cover was originally supposed to be Donald Trump riding a cockroach and waving an idiot city flag, but I couldn't get the sitting proportions right on Trump's weird, dumpy body, so I had to make him standing... for the most part the cover reflected on him in a really negative light and I didn't feel that was fair so I added a mustache so he could look cooler. The kids love mustaches these days, so I felt it was a good compromise.

Gabe: This was the second release for low hanging froot records. The issue was not with the cover art; it was with us using a screwed and chopped trump sample. United Pressing waited 3 months to make a test pressing and then let me know that they could not press the record, would not give me the test pressings, and would not refund my money for the test pressings or the making the mothers and masters, because they interpreted our use of trumps voice as a copyright violation. The lady explained that if could obtain permission from Trump to use his voice that they would proceed. I told her I would call him that evening and I'm sure that he'd be cool with it. She replied with, "Well I doubt that, he is a very busy man." Thats when I knew I was dealing was a grade A cunt from Appalachia. I told them to send me the metal parts and flipped them over to Mortimer Weiner and Rainbo Pressing; recieved prompt service with no issues. Moral of the story is this: Fuck United Pressing first and foremost. Secondly, there are two circles within the music world that overlap in the middle (think Venn Diagram). In the left circle you have people who love music and understand that live performances are a conduit between the band and the audience for ideas and emotion. In the right circle you have suits that use phrases like, "1 standard deviation", "fluid assets", and "synergy". Most successful artists can maintain within the overlapping area of the circles. I'm proud to stay in the far left wearing a barbie mask and a wig with two fingers jammed up my ass. You feel me?

For those who don’t know, every Saturday Gabe hosts the Hardcore Hour radio show. Please give a plug of what your show is all about.

Gabe: The show is called the Rock & Soul review, Chris Conflict and I host the hardcore hour which is on from 10-11 p.m. CST. We play a wide range of punk and hardcore and throw in other stuff for fun. I've interviewed Rob Lind of Blood for Blood, John Tole of OLC and Pitboss 2000, Aaron Bedard of Bane, and others. We facebook live most episodes. It's on the HD3 channel, so you can stream live from KPFT.com or from our webpage at www.radrichrocknsoulrevue.com . The website also has archives of our past shows. GET INTO IT.

https://www.facebook.com/idiotcitytx/
https://idiotcity.bandcamp.com/