Coming up on the Nov. 26 release of local pop/punk, the Weird Lovemakers' first full-length CD, the 28 song "Electric Chump," I joined them for a short, at times unsettling talk. We met at the home of Greg (guitar/lead vocals), with Jason (guitar) on the couch, proudly fingering their newly put-together "press kit", and Gerard (drummer) wandering in late. Hector (bass/lead vocals) was absent due to untold circumstances. The Dead Boys were on the stereo as we began what at first was a promising, reveal ing profile of one of Tucson's most underrrated bands, but what ended in an endless catalog of what Gerard ate that day.

Wildcat: How long have you been together?

Gerard: Two years.

Jason: Two and a half years.

Gerard: Two years in the summer.

Jason: Which would be two years.

WC: And before that, you were called Irving.

Jason: I think you know that. You're leading me.

Gerard: I think you could say we 'burst onto the scene'.

WC: What's your reaction to to Maximum Rock 'n' Roll's comparison of you to Archers of Loaf?

Jason: I think it's because of "Catholic Guilt" which is kind of strummy and college rock.

Greg: Archers of Loaf is nothing like that.

WC: How would you describe your music?

Greg: Psycho-punk-a-pop-a-licious...scratch that from the record.

WC: Do you think you have a larger audience because of your wider sound, ranging from pop to hardcore/punk?

Gerard: No, that actually narrows our audience. People get confused and scared.

Greg: They don't get scared.

Gerard: Yes, they do.

Greg: They don't run screaming. They just say, "These guys suck, I like that song, but I don't like this song."

Jason: People seem to like live bands that only do one thing, so there's no problems.

Greg: Yeah, so it's easy to grasp on to. When you see a band live, it's kind of hard to grasp on to if you've only seen them once or twice. So, if their playing the same thing you can get into it, understand it.

WC: So, why the younger audience?

Gerard: Because we're "on the tip."

Jason: It's also because Gerard is an educator of young minds. (Gerard is a middle school teacher.)

Greg: Gerard threatens to fail the kids if they don't come to see us.

WC: How does this "no-veto of songs" rule work?

Greg: If one guy writes a song and everybody thinks it's shit, we still have to play it. Most of the friction I've had in bands came from that. People saying, "Well, I don't like that song. That's not our sound." So, it works pretty good because we 're pretty similar in our musical taste, even though we argue about music all the time.

WC: Do you still accept every offer to play?

Gerard: We keep saying we won't, but then we end up always doing it.

Jason: I think the reason we get asked to play so much is because there are so few bands right now, in town, that we do the work load of like three bands. Over the course of the time we've been in existence, it seems we've been playing more and mo re and there have been fewer and fewer bands happening.

WC: What albums are you listening to right now?

Gerard: On the way over here I was listening to the new Archers of Loaf. I hate the song, "Chumming the Ocean."

Greg: With a name like that, how can it be good?

Gerard: My other favorite recent album is D-Generation. I love that record because it sounds like Tom Petty. I'm through the new Beck stage. I was listening to a lot of Beck.

Jason: I listened to the new April March a whole bunch, and now I probably will not listen to it much. I've been listening to a lot of Wipers and Bizarros.

Heath (Fells): You still dig out the Dry Heat comp, right? (Laughter)

Jason: Oh, I've been listening to dub reggae. King Tubby is great. A bunch of 70s dub reggae. "Embarrassment" retrospective cassette is one of my favorite albums. I've been listening to that 11 years straight.

WC: How do you perceive the Tucson scene, now, as compared to two years ago, or the future?

Jason: Two years ago was probably the last time it was active. There were house parties. Now, there's us, Pork Torta, Duarte 6 who play out. The Fells don't play in town much. The Zero Kings broke up. The Frustrations don't play. Rocket #9 don't exist. It's like an older crowd, now. There's not many venues. But I bet there's a bunch of high school bands. But it's all the same. It used to be a revolving group of 20 people who were in a ton of different bands, two years ago. The same people are in bands, but now, they're only in one.

WC: Where has the worst reception you've had been?

Greg: Tucson.

Jason: That Portland show was pretty bad.

Gerard: Yeah, but the four people there really loved us.

WC: No cigarette butts thrown at you?

Jason: Someone spat towards the stage once. But I think it was one of those punks who were spitting to show affection. There was a couple of DPC shows where no one was there and we were playing, and we were sucking. Hector got kissed by three or f our girls at our Halloween show. It was like girl after girl coming up and kissing Hector. And he just continued to play and grin.

Greg: Yeah, they nudged past me to get to him. When the song was over I went to the mic to try and make them feel guilty and I was, like, "Hey, I haven't gotten any kisses." So, Travis kissed me and then I think my friend Omar kissed me.

WC: How often do you play out?

Jason: No, I don't think we should answer the question.

Greg: Yeah, we play a lot. There's lots of times when we want to say "no" but we're grateful for the attention. We're like a homely girl at the prom.

WC: How was working with Jim Waters (producer of "Electric Chump")?

Greg: A nightmare. He called me cuntface. He called me this many times.

Jason: When he wasn't busy implying that Gerard slept with his mother.

Gerard: I totally missed that.

Jason: I was never the target. Jim and I got along swimmingly. He goaded Hector into doing some good stuff.

Gerard: So, wait, you're saying that Greg and I were the only targets?

Greg: In all honesty, Jim was great. We got to do a lot of experimental stuff.

WC: What kind of sound were you looking for?

Jason: We wanted a raw, kind of live sound. But, we all like studio effects.

Gerard: I don't think the album has a live sound at all. It reminds me of "And Justice For All" by Metallica.

WC: Listening to the finished album, are there any changes you would like to make?

Greg: Better drumming.

Gerard: I think Greg should've tuned his guitar.

Greg: I wanted to be more punk.

Jason: I think [the album] is a moment in time. It's a good snapshot.

WC: What's the hardest part about being in a Tucson band?

Greg: It would be nice if there were more places to play.

Jason: What about the demon animals that wer eating children or something like that? The Chuapa? The Chubracapa?

WC: The Chupacabra?

Jason: What about the weeping woman who's been stealing all of lmy children out of the park? She took my guitar first and then she took the tubes out of my amp. And now all my song writing skills are gone.

Greg: I hate the jackalopes. They got my amp.

Jason: We had a very bad Jackalope experience on the way to Sierra Vista.

WC: What did you guys eat today?

Greg: I worked today, so I ate a lot. I work at a restaurant.

Jason: I had Sun Chips and a soda pop. Cereal, chips and salsa.

Greg: Quiche, a bowl of soup.

Gerard: And now let's be truthful.

Jason: And, a plate of infants.

Gerard: I ate a bean buritto, side of nachos, a veggie burger with french fries, a jar of Gatorade, at Bentey's a yogurt smoothie with banana and chocolate syrup with berry mix.

Jason: You can just put that Gerard had vegemite. Some wallabees. A fried dingo.

Gerard:...and protein powder, and oh, mid-afternoon, I had an ice cream lollipop, some Sun Chips, when I go home some ice cream...

The Weird Lovemakers will be playing at 9:00 on Dec.9 at the Cellar for their record release party. The Fells and Teeth will open.

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