Interview with Nothington - Podcast 46

This is Jay from Nothington, and you're listening to Sound Scene Revolution.

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Alright, thanks for tuning in to Sound Scene Revolution. This is our second interview of the brand new year. And we have an interview with a great band, who you guys are really going to like. I kind of want to touch on something real quick, because it's been eating at me, and I don't know, maybe it's just me. I know we put this on the internet, and it's free for every douchebag with a 28k dial-up to get to, and that's cool, but if you're going to say something, please say something constructive, if you have a criticism. We've had a lot of people who have added criticism from editors of websites, to people who run podcasts, to just general people. And I don't mind constructive criticism, but if you're going to sit there, and you're going to be like, I don't like his voice, they need to talk more about Dungeons and Dragons and Ninja Turtles, just shut the fuck up.

Save me the fucking time. If you do not have something constructive to say about our website, please do not post on a fucking message board about how fucking often you beat off to horse porn. Do not send a shit about how annoying my voice is, because it reminds me of your father who touched you at some point. I don't need that. Just, please, if you have that much free time, you don't have a fucking life. You know why? I have a job. I have a fiance. I have this podcast. Do you know how many podcasts I get on, and I'm like, fuck you guys, fucking fuck, none. Because I have a fucking life, and I don't have time for that. So if you have time to sit there and bitch on the internet, chances are you're just fucking wasting time in between looking for dude on horse porn.

So. Man and D. Love.

Man and D. Love. Nice. So. We have an interview with Nothington, who is a fantastic band. Features two former members of Tsunami Bomb, and one member of the, I guess, currently inactive NMEU. They're a fucking fantastic band. They have an album coming out on BYO Records. This is going to be one of those bands in like two years you're going to tell all your friends about that you were there to hear them first. So seriously, check them out. They're funny guys. They have great music. In fact, we are going to play a track off their upcoming BYO release that comes out in February. We have, if you guys listen all the way to the end of the broadcast, we have a 7-inch and a t-shirt of theirs to give away. So just listen to the end, and we'll tell you how to do that.

And the 7-inch is the very first thing they've ever had released. It's on left of the dial. And in February, they're coming out with their full length on BYO Records. So this is all for the full length. It's the opening track. It's called Where I Stand. So check it out, and then we'll hop into the interview. Enjoy.

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If you guys can introduce yourselves. The Helsing. I'm Jay. Gabe. I'm Chris. Mike.

Hi. Yeah, that was kind of eerie. I guess the easiest first place to start is kind of the history of the band, how you guys got together, and all the rest of that. I woke up one day and called Gabe and said, hey, I wrote a song, you want to play it? He said, you're going to rock. Yeah. And Gabe was ready to rock, nonetheless. And we went up and played a couple songs, and then we recorded a few songs, got some interest, and then these guys came along to help us out. And we joined his band. He made us join. He made you? Yeah. He forced us to. Yeah, well, a really hot brand. He's got some crazy naked pictures of me, so he'd blackmail, you know. Anyways. Sorry, what? I don't know what I'm going to say right now. Maybe Gabe shouldn't have a microphone.

Hey. Maybe we should take that away from you, Gabe. Yeah, we're doing serious now. Serious talk. Yeah. Serious talk. All right. So, you guys got together. So, it was originally just you and Gabe, and how did you enlist these two guys? Did you actually talk to them, or did you just kind of, did they show up one day? I told Chris at a bar one night. He begged me every night at a bar for about two months. True story. True story.

And after many drunk conversations about, yeah, dude, someday I'll come up there. And I did. Eventually, you kept that promise. And eventually I did. And it was a good time, so. All right. And then, I don't know about Mike. We met, me and Jay met through internet gating site. And gay.com. And, you know, the rest is history. And we actually, Mike and I met about five years ago at San Francisco State. And we played in bands together for years and years. So, he just, he was the natural choice. That's right, dude. Awesome. Now, Chris, you still play in NMEU. Is that correct? That is true. Now, has that been any conflict at all? Like, because I know you guys. It's pretty easy to not have a conflict with NMEU because they're on indefinite hiatus.

Really? Yeah. I thought they, didn't they just record for Nitro? Yeah, we did. We just recorded a record in May. You just got the scoop. And then you were just like, eh. Well, I don't, you know what, I am not at liberty to discuss that because I, you know, honestly, I just don't even know what's, you know. They just stopped calling you? Maybe you're just on indefinite hiatus. I think you're out of the band. You don't even know it. Yeah, pretty much. I don't know. Yeah. All right. All right. Well, let's, let's focus more on nothing, Tim. All right. Enough of all that. All right. So, you guys have a record coming out on BYO when? February 13th. February 13th. And tonight, you guys are celebrating the release of your 7-inch, right?

Yes, on Left Off The Dial. All right. Now, are those going to be songs that are going to be featured on your full length? No. No, two of them are on our full length and two of them are not. So, and the two of them that are not are actually two of my favorite songs. So, how'd they get cut from the full length? One of them wasn't even written, so. One of them wasn't even written. Our label came back and told us that we could only use two from the full length on the 7-inch, and we had one that was recorded but wasn't on the record, so we went back and did one more. But the first song that was on the full length, Rob the Band, was written actually in, like, what, Germany? I think it was Austria. But Austria is like a total joke, and it ended up kind of sticking.

I think we're going to play it tonight, too, by the way, guys. Just letting you know now. All righty. What? That's going to be on the set. This is an outrage. Yeah. That's what you sound like, Gary? I quit. I'm, yeah. I'm livid. All right, now, you guys, you hooked up with Left of the Dial because they're friends here, is that right? Yeah. Our publicist through BYO, Julie, it's her boyfriend, Dan Rosinski, and he's a real good dude. He kind of came to us. He books us here, too. Yeah, he books us here. Ah, that helps. He put it out of this show, actually, so. Ah, excellent, excellent. Good dude. He's nifty. Now, do you know, is there going to be a certain number of pressings of those, or anywhere people can get them?

We don't, we don't know, um, No Idea is the main distributor of it, and, uh, I think, in Interpunk, and I think you can get them through both sites at this point, but, um, I don't, I don't know if there's any set number of pressings. It, um, you know, probably as many as people buy, I guess. Yeah, as many as people are willing to purchase. Yeah, exactly. I reckon they'll keep, you know, making them. Yeah, so, now, one of the things that, what were they talking about back there? Limited color. Uh, Tim wanted to say there's limited color, so, uh. There'll be, uh, 15 black, so if you get a black one. Right, you're stoked. Good job, congratulations for you. But, um, so you guys, it's been, what, in almost six months from your first show, six months to your first release on BYO Records, that's pretty fast-paced.

Now, you've all come from long-term touring bands that have kind of, you know, it's taken a lot longer for that kind of success to happen. How has it been, in contrast? It's kind of been ridiculous, I would say. That's a good one. It was, it was not, it was not something I, I expected. I don't know about the rest of these guys, but it was one of those things that just happened, and, um, through past label experiences that I've had, I was more going for people who were, like, genuine people running a label, as opposed to somebody who could really do something awesome for me. And as soon as I met Mark Stern, it seemed like just a very natural fit. Like, we just really got along, and, uh, you know. Would you like to say something, Gabe?

Uh, no. I think Jay's got it covered. I think so. Sorry. Yeah, you're doing pretty good, Jay. You're doing all right. You're doing all right. Don't fuck it up, dude. No dead air. Don't yell at me. I'm backing you up, man. Next question. It's all on your shoulders now. So, um, I can't remember now for the life of me. Who runs BYO again? Mark Stern and Sean Stern. Thank you, the brothers, Stern brothers. Yeah, they are the singer and drummer of Youth Brigade. Right, right. Now, you had never met them before, though? I had never met them before, and, uh, when we actually got the call, this was two days, mind you, after we had posted our first recordings on MySpace, that they called, and we were in L.A. the following week.

Mm-hmm. And I think it was, like, we sat down at some place on, uh, sunset, and Mark walked in, and we, you know, he just said, I'll have a margarita, keep them coming. And what I thought was gonna be, like, a 30-minute, like, band, you know, whatever, like, we're interested in you, turned out to be, like, a two-and-a-half-hour free-for-all. Huh. So, it was, it was good. That's, you know, like I said, I'm more into, like, people and knowing that somebody has a good heart. Right on. Cool. Or just get Jay drunk and he'll be on your label. That's why he got all the margaritas. He's got a good heart.

All right. Um, are you guys planning, uh, after the release in February, planning any full-scale touring on that? Uh, yes. We're trying, we're booking it right now. We start, uh, February 18th in Santa Cruz with Drag the River, and then, um, we're, we'll end up in, uh, Austin with, for South by Southwest. Oh, wow. So, we're, we're touring out of that. It'll probably be between four and six weeks, something like that. We'll, we're pretty much in a big circle from San Francisco to Texas and all the way back out to Seattle and down and whatever. So, it'll be like a West Coast, Midwest kind of thing. Oh, that's cool. Oh, that's right. You guys are going to be playing punk rock bowling, too. Yeah, Vegas next weekend.

We're stoked. That, that is reason alone to sign up, you know, be on BYO Records. Absolutely. I mean, that bill alone, the Bouncing Souls, Dillinger, Foreign Strike, Anywhere is just. No, did they just, like, ask you or were you like, can we be on that? Come on. You know, I, I honestly think it was BYO saying we've got this new, it was, we were the first band I signed with them in two years. So, I think it was kind of their doing and saying, look, we're putting you on this bill and they did. And I know this, this guy, Gabe, has toured with the Bouncing Souls before and we've toured with Strike Anywhere and we've met Dillinger for it at the Triple Rock in Minneapolis, which is phenomenal, by the way. It's an amazing, amazing venue.

It's one of those places everyone talks about, like, if you go to Minneapolis, you have to, like, go there. You have to go there and you, you have to order the Cook's Revenge. The Cook's Revenge. They make you whatever the hell they feel like making and it's always good. They just pour everything into a glass or is it just, like, food? It's food. It's food with the Cook's Revenge. I can remember being there and our bass player at the time had a, it was Spider, the former, I guess, former bass player of the Loved Ones. Yeah, now former. It was his birthday, so it was a really good time anyway, but our bass player had ordered the Cook's Revenge and got some Asian noodle thing and I ordered it and I got a chicken quesadilla, so you really can't go wrong.

It only matters if it's, like, the same price and it's, like, $10 and they're like, oh, here's a bowl of rice. Well, they hooked it up, so I wouldn't complain. That's cool. That's good to know. We're going to take a quick break there in the middle of the interview to bring you more music from Nothington off of their BYO debut and we're going to play the track number four going home for you guys and be sure if you like the music of Nothington, be sure to keep checking them out. They're going to be doing a full tour in February and at the end of the show, we have a copy of their debut 7-inch and a t-shirt to give away, so if you want that, everybody likes free shirts, dude. Who doesn't? I love free t-shirts.

Half my shirts are free and they have, like, holes and fucking coffee stains on them, but they're free. So if you want to get a free shirt, stay tuned, listen to the end of the broadcast and we'll tell you how to do that. Right now we're going to play Going Home off of their BYO full length. It has a name. I just don't know it, so check it out.

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You guys seem to draw a lot of comparisons, I don't know, like, from all sorts of areas. People have been describing, like, everyone's always like, well, they're like this band mixed with this band. What would you guys, like, would you describe your music as? I know that's such a shit question to ask. That's better for you, man. A total sham.

Shit, I don't know. We've gotten everything across the board. I think I heard on Punk News today, it was Beard Rock. That was pretty awesome. Beard Cool. No, I've got to grow a beard. None of us have beard. None of us have beard. I can't grow a beard, dude. Chris can't even grow a beard. I'm a Sharpie. Yeah, and Mike only, like, grows everyone so long. I can't grow a beard. Mike can grow a pretty sweet mustache, though. Yeah. That qualifies. I think that qualifies. How can you not grow a beard? How about mustache rock instead? Mustache rock. Can we go with that instead? There we go.

Yeah, we're not cops, dude. I don't know. I guarantee you two weeks into this tour, I'm going to have a gnarly beard, so maybe it is qualifiable, but I don't know. We've gotten everything. It's more about influences, I think, and we're all influenced from across the board. I'm from, I guess, the South, the East Coast, whatever, you know, and these guys are all California guys. And it's funny how that actually does make a difference in what you grew up on, as in, you know, I grew up on a lot of post-hardcore and things like that, and these guys, I know he was in the Green Day, kind of like Operation Ivy, like the punk, the California, NorCal punk scene kind of thing, and it's been really... Gilman Street.

Gilman Street, yeah. And it's been really cool, though, to kind of like... There it is. Kind of like him and I trade CDs, you know what I mean? And he's got way more shit than I do, you know what I mean? Jay honestly owns like four CDs. Yeah, and I don't have an iPod. And he doesn't... He has no possessions. He lives in my kitchen.

Sounds about right for a musician. There are sacrifices that need to be made, you know? You know those small rooms that people keep their bikes in? That's where he... Like off the side of kitchens? That's where Jay lives. Wow. I was like, that's gotta be good. It's really cheap. 300 bones a month. And in San Francisco, that is... But yeah, Jay has like very few CDs. It's pretty amazing. Yeah, well, I mean, and you know, when I do laundry, I don't bring a hamper. I bring my suitcase to refill. I'm just... I'm ready to go. Metallica, Motley Crue, which... What are Guns N' Roses? You got Appetite. What's the fourth one? I got Guns... Wait, no, I got Guns N' Roses, Leatherface, like Kill Em All. Kill Em All. You just bought Sam I Am, then.

Sam I Am, Clumsy. So that's four. That's it. Against Me. Against Me, yeah. That's all. Oh, the BYO sent you a CD for free. What was that? Was that your own CD? I don't think that counts. Filthy Thieving Bastards. Yeah, Filthy Thieving Bastards, but yeah, I guess... I don't know. I got a case of our own CD. Was that qualified? That means I got 20. That's why he started the band, actually. He wanted some CDs. Yeah, exactly. Feel with the label affiliation, they'll hook you up with some. Something like that. Yeah, that's a good place to start. I mean... Indeed. I don't know. I mean, all those splits, you know? Like, that's one of the records that I hold in the highest regard, is the Hot Water Music Leatherface split on BYO.

Yeah. That's one of the greatest records ever made, as far as I'm concerned. Everyone's seen it. It's weird. Everyone points to the Hot Water Music splits as some of their best, like that one. The one they did with Alkaline Trill. Alkaline Trill. It was amazing when they covered each other. Yeah. Like, that was... Yeah. I don't know. I feel kind of bad. Like, all their stuff's relegated to one half of a record instead of a whole. This is true. I guess they're not going to complain. Now, you actually mentioned... Did you read... You guys got MP3 of the Week on Punk'd? Yeah, we saw it today. It was pretty cool. What? MP3 of the Week for Going Home. Oh, nice. On Punk'd. Oh, nice. Did you get your speech ready? Yeah. Oh, my...

It's like a big award. Come on. They don't give that to just anyone. 52 bands a year or something like that. Yeah, that's true. That's great. I mean, you know, of course, we love that. But that was actually where I got the Beard Rock quote from. Somebody left that. It said, it sounded like Beard Rock. I think that primarily applies to, like, a lot of the Gainesville-style, like, southern Florida... Not, like, southern, but, like, southern area of Florida-type panhandle bands. Yeah, and I think that's kind of what we bring to the table is the fact that, you know, we're all from different areas. And I grew up on Hot Water Music, and Frankie Stubbs... I'm watching Jay's sound waves, and they're super small. Sorry.

Frankie Stubbs was actually lived in Atlanta for a little while, and I used to see him stumbling around little five points. And that was always fun, because he was a total hero of mine, even though, like, nobody knew who the hell... No one else. No one knew who the hell Leatherface was, so it's one of those things, but, yeah. While we're talking about it, I asked this question of Strike Anywhere. I'm going to ask you guys. Better solo artist, Tim Perry or Chuck Reagan? Chuck Reagan. Chuck Reagan. What'd they say? Actually, Thomas from Strike Anywhere, he folded. He was like, oh, I can't say. So, he weaseled out. Our manager, Tim, is saying Tim Perry, and honestly, you know, it's funny, as we were listening to Tim Perry's solo record on the way over here, and it is amazing.

It's really, really good. But I've got to say, I was just floored by the Chuck Reagan thing. And even the draft, it took me a little while to get into it, but it's great. It's almost like I never wanted to see Hot Water Music split, but what has been produced by both of them since then is... I think it's as good. Yeah. You know, certainly, you know, and... Oh, I can't remember the name of the last album. I was going to make a joke, but I just fucked it up. What was their last album? Who? Last Hot Water? Oh, uh... The New What's Next. The New What's Next. Thank you. Actually, that wasn't too bad. Yeah, that sounds good. I don't know. I was going to... I dug it. I was going to make a joke, but I'm like, oh, that was actually an okay album.

Shit. Don't. I've loved every one of their albums. I did, too. You don't gotta... No one's... Hot Water Music won't listen. It's okay. You don't gotta... Oh, really? I mean, it's really... What I meant to say was... No one really listens. It's me and my mom, mostly. Sweet. So, she'll really like you guys after this. Cool. Which will be nice. There's that one dude from Punk News. Someone? Someone from Punk News. Someone from Punk News, yeah. Someone from Punk News. Fucking... He listens to our shit all the time. He has the greatest fucking comments. All right. Fuck someone. Anyhow. All right. One of the... I gotta ask is... This is... Two of you guys come from Tsunami Bomb, right? Jay and Gay, right? Okay. Do you get, like, a lot of people who were really surprised initially?

Because it's a pretty big jump off from, you know, where Tsunami Bomb came from. You have to ask a question. You go ahead. No, I'm regulating Jay, dude. You go ahead, because I... And the question was what, exactly? Asking if, like, you got a lot of people, because this is a pretty big departure from Tsunami Bomb, if you got a lot of people who were surprised or upset or... I haven't heard a lot of feedback, personally, from people. And I don't go on Punk News, and I don't read all the gossip. Pretty much all I know is my close friends, like my brothers, have always been a huge critic of all of my bands. But, yeah, so far, it's all been good. You know, it is a huge stretch. It's a huge change and everything.

But so far, all the feedback has been really good. And actually, a lot of people, like a lot of my close friends who like music similar to what I like, are pretty stoked that I'm playing in a band that's, you know, like, has balls, basically. You know, I mean, nothing is Tsunami Bomb, but I'm just saying, like, it's a complete different style of music for us. Yeah, you know, I didn't even really think about that aspect of it, you know, until I did an interview with AP, and then I did one with Big Will today, and they were really posing that question, saying, wow, it's such a departure. And I didn't even really think about that until they were starting to mention that. And it really is quite a departure.

But, I mean, I never got to really write anything for Tsunami Bomb. And the songs that Matt and I and everybody else wrote for the Tsunami Bomb record that never was, was, I think, quite a departure for Tsunami Bomb as well. But, I don't know, it's just different. It's more organic. It's more roots. You know. Yeah, plus, I mean, it'd be hard to see her singing some of the stuff you wrote. It'd definitely be a weird kind of a vibe. It fits a little better with your voice, I think. Yeah, well, she sounds really good doing harmonies on some of the stuff, so. Yeah. Just not quite as deep. No, her larynx wasn't dragged across the parking lot. Yeah. And that, it takes dedication to do that for your being. Yeah, absolutely.

All right. Well, I think we are going to wrap it up here. But before we go, do you guys got anything you want to plug? You guys got a couple, I know you got a couple of shows coming up. Like, well, there's this one, then you guys would drag the river. Yeah, hang on. Drag the river in Santa Cruz. What's the next show? I would say just look at our website or something for tour dates. Check out the MySpace page. Our tour dates will be announced real soon. Cool, cool. So in the next, like, week or so, I think we'll have the tour up. Yeah. And come see the shows. Come hang out. And, yeah. Wow. Wow, that was profound. Yeah. That was good. It's a, I know where you're in on here. I'm definitely going to our shows now. Yeah.

I'm totally going to our show. You better be at your show. I'll be at the show. Oh, yeah. All four of you will be at the show. So that will be at least four people. Correct. Which is good. All right. Well, I want to thank you guys for being on. Thank you for having us. Thank you, guys. All the best with the records coming out. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. All right. That's the interview. I hope you guys like it. If you guys like the music, the interview, all that, check out Nothington, www.nothington.com, myspace.com, slash, nothington. The usual. So, if you like them enough, we have a seven-inch of their, well, it's their debut seven-inch. It's called One for the Road. It's by, left off the dial. And it has two songs from their full-length debut, and then two which were unreleased.

I'm trying to, I think the ones that were unreleased are Rob the Band and Long Way Home, and the ones that are going to be on their debut are The Bottom Line, which we're actually going to play here in a little bit, and The Last Time. So, if you want that and a t-shirt, just send us an email at soundscenerevolution at gmail.com. Put Nothington Contest in the subject line, and just so we know that you were listening and you paid attention, well, here's what we're going to do. Nothington in about a week, I believe, are going to be playing punk rock bowling. They're going to be playing with Bouncing Souls, Dillinger 4, Strike Anywhere, I think. Pretty much everyone who's awesome is going to be playing at that show.

So, if you had the chance to put together your ultimate show, fantasy, bands that are together, bands that aren't, whatever, who would be in it? And that's pretty simple, and just slap that in an email, put your name, your pertinent information, send that off to soundscenerevolution at gmail.com. With Nothington Contest as the subject line, we will pick one winner, and we will send them the 7-inch and a large t-shirt. The t-shirt only comes in large, we've already taken it, we don't have another size. If you want it another size, shrink it, or fucking give it to them back at a show, and be like, can I exchange this, see what happens? I really want to find out. So, that wraps up the interview, the show.

I hope you guys liked it. Tune in next week, and hopefully we'll try not to suck. The track, we're going to be playing one last, like I said, it's available on their full length, and it's on the 7-inch, one for the road, and it's called The Bottom Line. So, I hope you enjoy it, and see y'all next week.

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