WEAKLINGS IN TERVIEWS

Here are some interviews The Weaklings have done over the years. From most recen t on back. Including a badly translated one fom the German Fanzine, "The OX Quar terly" Enjoy... Soundwaves - Longbeach Gazette By Steve Irsay Sometimes sometimes Weaklings singer Bradley Shaver s crazy ideas actually work. Like the time the road-tested Portland, Ore., sleaze rockers rolled into a club in Green Bay, Wis., just in time to miss their gig. No gig meant no pay, which m eant no gas money to get to Kansas the next day. Or did it...? I started playing $20 hands of rummy with the bartender and winning every one, Sha ver laughed. Before I know it, we made $120 without playing and we were on our wa y. It s dedication and scheming like this that has kept Shaver on the road relentless ly for the last decade supporting his band s smattering of indie singles, splits a nd their two full lengths, the latest one entitled Rock N Roll Owes Me. It doesn t really owe us anything except some more good times, Shaver conceded. The album is a solid collection of AD/DC-inspired riffage and mid-tempo modern p unk a la Zeke. But The Weaklings romps through poverty, drunkenness and even card playing are probably best enjoyed live, with sweat in your eyes and a drink in your hand. And when the drink is done, you can even throw the glass. Going to our shows, you don t know if you are going to get hit upside the head by a pint bottle or an ash tray or a mic stand, Shaver said. And we prefer audience pa rticipation. They can throw things at us and they usually do. But driving hours to be pelted with bar glasses is not every musician s idea of a night well spent. In fact, the fertile Portland music scene must be littered wit h the carcasses of those not strong enough for The Weaklings: there have been 38 members of the band (23 of them drummers) in their 10-year stand. Everyone wants to be in a band, but nobody wants to tour, Shaver lamented. You have to get on the road and have rock n roll kick your ass a few times. The only other Weakling who has stood the test of time is guitarist Mark Rhemrev , who has a stop-and-start verse riff and Chuck Berry lead lick for every occasi on. He s also the one to keep Shaver in check. I m the guy with the crazy ideas, but he levels me out and makes me think a little more, Shaver said. Through all the ups and downs, Shaver doesn t sound the least bit tired, frustrate d, disappointed or worried. His rent is due and he doesn t have it. He s laughed in the face of worse and that is pretty much why The Weaklings still exist. Tough it out with The Weaklings this Saturday at Alex s Bar (2913 E. Anaheim St.). Their equally hard-rocking label mates Black Jetts also are on the bill. Lolipop An Interview with singer Bradley Wayne Shaver and drummer Steve "The Kid" Mickel son by Jon Sarre Anybody who's seen Portland, OR's favorite deadend kids, the Weaklings, knows th e horrible mess they make: shit breaks, glasses smash, blood is spilt, reputatio ns are ruined, promising lives are derailed, paying customers have a good time.. . that kinda stuff. Their shows are somewhat legendary coast to coast (as a resu lt of their relentless touring, but then again they probably've already played i n your town and you didn't even know it) for the mayhem these hard-playing light

weights have been known to immerse themselves in no matter what the scene's like . A little while ago, not long after the band returned from a U.S. tour with the Candy Snatchers (during which Junk released their newest LP, Just the Way We Li ke It), Weaklings singer, Bradley Wayne Shaver and drummer Steve "the Kid" Micke lson sat down (late, I should add) in front of Portland's oldest continuously op erational punk rock dive, the Satyricon, to talk about what's on their minds, ju st the way they like it. Okay, you're so late, I forgot all the good questions, so... Bradley: Sorry Steve: Yeah, you told me midnight, and I was looking at the clock... it surprise d me when Bradley came in and goes, "You got 15 minutes?" You only think this is gonna take 15 minutes? Come on! Steve: It's 15 minutes of fame, right? You get five. Bradley: We get two. How long you been doin' this thing? Bradley: Ahh... January 20th, 1995 was our first show. We were together for a ye ar, tryin' to find a stable drummer before that. Steve: I joined the band, got a call from Mark [Rhemrev, guitar] on Christmas Da y '97... We practiced and went out across the U.S. with these three guys. Bradley: The current lineup [Steve, Mark, and bassist Casey J. Maxwell] is the l ongest. How many people have you had so far? Bradley: Like 18... most of them drummers. Probably ten drummers. Bradley, what's the idea here, you bored? Bradley: No, I wanted to do a rock'n'roll band [with original member Chris Thoma s]. We didn't wanna fuck around anymore. We'd been in dumb bands before... we di dn't do shit and we'd decided we'd do this thing 100% and do it ourselves if tha t needed to happen. Within six months of our first show, we had two singles out and went on tour for ten months across the States knowing nobody. We just worked and worked and worked until everything fell apart so many different times that [Chris] didn't want any part of it anymore. By that point, I'd been doing this f or so fuckin' long that I felt obligated to keep things going. Not only cuz we h ad stuff coming out, but cuz I wanted to and I wasn't done with it yet. It's all about livin' that little dream. How far into it did you figure that out? Bradley: Almost immediately. I dunno, I didn't even start out doin' it until som ebody told me "you should be a singer." Once we started doin' stuff it was like. .. fun. It just kinda mutated itself into something I have a passion for. I real ly wanna do it. So you're stuck with it. Bradley: Yeah, pretty much... locked into the "go nowhere" club. Runnin' your head into a brick wall and bouncin' back hasn't... Bradley: No, if anything it's just made me work harder. The more people say I'm not gonna fuckin' do shit, it just makes me work harder. I look at things that w ay. Steve: Too late to stop. Bradley: I just don't wanna... Obviously when the steam runs out, the steam runs out... The steam has run out for lotsa people, but I just do it cuz I like to d o it. Whatever. I mean the funnest fuckin' thing is playin' in a town I've never been to and havin' people fuckin' dance and have a good time. How do things play out when you're outta here [Portland]? Better? Bradley: Yeah, in certain areas. Steve: Hit'n'Miss. Bradley: It's funny, this is our hometown... people see us every fuckin' day, bl ah, blah, blah. Just a coupla weeks ago, in Oklahoma City, we did our run-of-the -mill rock show and they went crazy cuz they never see shit like that. We're hom e and they're like "Bradley's fallin' off the drums again." It's no big deal. Bu t some places will always suck, like the South...

Steve: For us it stops around Austin. We usually do good in Austin - past that, I dunno... Bradley: Two years ago we were in Virginia Beach... Nobody's there and I walk ar ound the corner to buy a pack of cigarettes. The city's dead but there's 200 tee nage kids freakin' out to this disco ball and it's like, yup, definitely in the wrong field for money... Kids don't have any fuckin' idea about rock'n'roll. You guys played a show with Buckcherry. Now they're gettin' some kinda radio pla y, what'd ya think of that? Steve: I feel an argument comin' on! Bradley: Any buncha idiots up there jerkin' off with their instruments that has X million dollars of promotion behind 'em is gonna sell records and is gonna dra w people. As far as I'm concerned, I don't fuckin' like 'em. I think they're bul lshit. They may be great guys and a great band, but I didn't see it when I saw t hem. It was a big joke to me. Steve: Okay, but here's my take on it: You can't help but admit they're a rock'n 'roll band. They may make these kids realize that maybe they should explore othe r avenues... Do you think there's maybe a little there that would make people check out the C andy Snatchers or some Junk bands or... Bradley: No... I just think they're awful. Comparing them to a real rock'n'roll band - I mean, come on, this is like the Spice Girls of Rock'n'Roll! What if they said to you after the show, "We want you to tour with us"? Bradley: I'd say, "How much?" and then I'd do it. It'd be nice to come home with rent money for once. Steve: We're sittin' in a Denny's in Oklahoma City after a show and these two bi mbos come up and they're like "Are you guys Buckcherry?" I wanted to say yes, bu t Brad had to step in and say "No." What's a lie every once in a while? So bimbo s think you're Buckcherry... ya might get lucky. Bradley: End of the fuckin' Buckcherry conversation. The Candy Snatchers come ho me [from tour] in the fuckin' hole... Steve: And Buckcherry's in a tour bus.Bradley: It's fuckin' bullshit; those guys [the Candy Snatchers] have been doin' the stuff for so long with no fuckin' cre dit! [Craig, who used to be in Olympia, WA's Fitz of Depression and now drums for Por tland's Viles has been sitting at the next table for a bit, chimes in:] Craig: Whatever, man, look at the Wipers! Bradley: Exactly! Steve: The [New Bomb] Turks are just starting to get recogniti on... Craig: We played, like ten years ago with the New Bomb Turks, they packed the ho use and they'd sell all their fuckin' shirts. They do okay! Steve: They still go home to their shit jobs. Craig: They live in Indiana, for chrissakes! Ohio... Eric still works at a record store. Craig: They had their chance and they were like, "We're way too punk." They turn ed down a buncha shit! They turned down like three labels. They woulda got a shit deal like Gaunt did with Warner Bros. Craig: They got a fine deal. Until you do it, you don't know! After the restructuring, all the bands got fuckin' dropped... [Short argument ensues and Wade, drummer for the Lucky Thirteens, Bradley's othe r band, shows up and spontaneously joins in] So Bradley, uh... I gotta ask the token cuttin' yourself question... Bradley: I cut myself, I bleed, I fall down... The difference between you and Iggy or G.G. or even Larry [from the Candy Snatch ers], they're usually pretty fucked up and you're, uh... sober. You cut yourself when you're stone sober - what's up with that? Bradley: I like it, it's somethin' to do, I dunno... It's pretty much a staple of your live shows, Bradley cuts himself... [CRASH]

Bradley: And Wade falls down... [Wade gets back up] Wade: I have something to say here! Shut up! [Wade throws my stuff and a chair into the street] Don't throw my stuff into the street! [Wade gets my stuff] So you got something to say here, or're you just makin' a spectacle of yourself? Wade: A little of both. [All three drummers start clapping in time to the Gary Numan song playing at the restaurant] This is just degenerating into a drunken mess... so [to Bradley] where's this go ing, both the Weaklings and the rock'n'roll thing, is it gonna come back? Bradley: No, but that's good, cuz it's really, at the heart, an underground thin g... Wade: Why are we talking about this? Why? Why? Why? Cuz I need x thousands of words for copy. Steve: You can also look at bands like AC/DC and the Stones, they still sell out arenas. Twenty years later. Wade: Yeah, that's what we're talkin' about, okay, yeah... So why do you drum for fuckin' bands, Wade? Wade: Because I'm a loser! Craig: Amen! Why? Wade: Cuz I like it. You like being a loser or you like drumming in rock'n'roll bands? Wade: Yes. Which one? It was an either/or question and you answered "yes"? Wade: Okay, either/or A and B. A and B? Wade: A is what? You like being a loser and B is you like drumming in rock'n'roll bands. Wade: C. C is? Wade: All of the above. How'd you do on your SATs, Wade? Wade: I did great, but I didn't apply myself. You know why? Cuz I wanted to play fuckin' drums! (7071 Warner Ave. #F736 Huntington Beach, CA 92647) Ox Fanzine by Marc clip mountain Of because of "Schwaechlinge"! The WEAKLINGS, which gave us in quite short time via Junk record with two Longplayern, is the most ass-stepping thing beside the HOOKERS, ZEKE and the LA DONNAS at present like that with. In hope to encourage the volume to come but in the next millenium times to Europe we placed a few sma rt questions to singer Wayne. Okay, first the standard questions: when and where and why and how? Wayne: "the WEAKLINGS was created in January 1995 by some types, which are howev er today no more in that volume, because they are all soft eggs. The momentary L INE UP is the best. We wrote our best pieces together, become ever better it." You call you the "Schwaechlinge", which stands however contrary to your strong R ock'n'Roll style... Wayne: ", we may it confuse the people." Where we are straight thereby: How would you describe your style? Punk? Skirt? R ock'n'Roll? Or of all something? Wayne: "all three styles, mainly however Rock'n'Roll." The volume info. describes you as "schaebiges, besoffenes, bloody, inexorable Ro ck'n'Roll monster". See their that exactly the same?

Wayne: "most is correct. However, we do not want to be eternally "out OF control ", it could us perhaps kill. One can lose so much blood... " Thus your Liveshows is very intensive. Does their that force, or does pass force , noise and chaos simply, if you play together? Which was up to now the positive /most negative feedback? Wayne: "it happens simply, if we begin to play. It is always geil, if the people drive off, fun has, and at the same time with us bloody become. Our funniest Sh ow was in the last year our release party in haven country. All were on a level, revved up and sweated, it were simple geil! The abgefahrendste Show was, when w e were escorted at night one in Chico, California, from the city. The Gig ran cl ass, not too ill, broken glass, water and beer everywhere. I know to go only tha t the curtains burned at one time around the stage and we became "asked". Compared with other volume your kind you play rather slowly. Is intended? Wayne: "we do not want to be sounded as other volume. Each reef does not have a certain speed play it faster brings it. One must play it with the suitable speed , otherwise it sounds simple to shit." The production of the current album differs much from the predecessors, is stron ger. How kommt's? Wayne: "because Junk, paid our label this time the studio. I had to pay the last album from my own bag. Thus we obligated Conrad UNO, since he knows, how one me rges Songs, and I not." In your hometown haven country as grandiose of volume was resident as POISON IDE A and the WIPERS. Which volume give and/or did give does it there, which affecte d the WEAKLINGS? Wayne: "from our area it gives some volume, which we like: DEAD MOON, THE VILES, 8-foot TENDER, THE OF SPITFIRES... I could still call some, it give simply tons of coolen volume in userer area." So far I white, are it only too fourth. What happened with number 5? Wayne: "we had no more support on its let us shit and to have it eaten." Are there any plans, in Europe to routes? Wayne: ", we plan a European route in the year 2000, therefore includes your wiv es!" What are your plans? Have you already new release in preparation? Wayne: "we publish a new single," NO one CAN stop you ", and a new album in the early summer next yearly." What makes it otherwise in your spare time? I read somewhere that you come from the worker environment - nevertheless you do not play Oi!. Any unusual collectin g passions? Wayne: "I am too finished, in order to collect things. Everyone makes shitting j obs for shitting money. We come to a route home, are at the ass, and spend the n ext four weeks with our beschissenen jobs, in order from our debts to come... Bu t that will probably never fold."