Part 2, MMR interview with Phester and Bob Lee

Maximum Rock n' Roll, part 2

MRR - The latest in a growing list of corporate entities to screw the group is Spin magazine, who in their recent "20 Years of Punk" issue used the headline "Sit On My Face, Stevie Nicks" for one of it's stories and didn't even mention the band! That must've really got your goat…

PHES - Oh Man! I just got the foam cleaned up!

BOB LEE - I like the Germs but why couldn't they title it "We Must Bleed" or "Shutdown" or "What We Do Is Secret"?? I wonder what Darby himself would have thought of a statement indicating a desire to eat pussy appearing under his beautiful mug. It does make us feel whitewashed. They did print my letter of correction in the letters column but who reads letters?

I would like to think that it's Mick Fleetwood's fault, and I want to say right now that I HATE fucking Mick Fleetwood. My friend Richard told me about some English prog-rock guy that got Mick to graciously agree to shit on the drumset at his sessions, thinking this would be a big selling point, but when he mentioned Mick's name, none of the people he had brought it to were the least bit impressed and the record remains unreleased. "Hey thanks for nothin' rock starrrr!" I laughed my ass off at that one.

So maybe it's not him, he's such a loser in his old age, but I'd still like to think so. I hate him so much.

PHES - What those fuckers at Spin did was to contact us first for photos of the band from the era for that very article. But they didn't use any and didn't say one word about us while plastering "SIT ON MY FACE, STEVIE NICKS" under a full page photo of Darby Crash like it was his fucking song! "The history of SoCal punk" my ass! What a bunch of skull fuckers! And the article was written by Brendan Mullen who should have known better too. I'd like to think he had nothing to do with the title. Of course I complained like hell but got responses like "what's the problem?" and "why are you upset?" They knew exactly what they were doing and why I was upset. But they're a bunch of chicken shits. I suppose they felt that because we're not fucking U2, or Aerosmith or Madonna we don't count and screwing us is ok. The whole fish wrapping birdcage liner is run by pathetic little people who don't get it. They don't have any real talent, taste or integrity and measure quality by monetary success. By kissing ass to the big labels who spend big bucks for advertising and their lackey commercial pop bands while fucking over the little guys and real musicians they feed their own pathetic egos so they can think they're hot shit. Well, they're not hot but they are shit. I should mention that they edited Bob's letter taking much of the sarcasm and sting out of it.

It's this sort of thing that still pissed me off. If anyone was to ever ask me what my influences are I'd have to say it's magazines like Spin and bullshit, in it for the money and fame bands and acts like Kid Rock. Every time I pick up the guitar at home, in practice or on stage it's to keep the real fucking thing alive. We sure as hell ain't NEVER gonna get it from the big bucks merchandising machine. They may have the money and fame but they don't do it half as well as we do or any of a million struggling failures around the world for that matter. Geeze Louise! We'll call the album "Kid Suck"! Or better yet "SPIN IS SHIT"!

Damn! I gotta go change my clothes. They're soaked in foam.

MRR - So 20 odd years later, the band is back playing local punk dives in Los Angeles. Is it a better atmosphere these days?

PHES - Didn't you already ask this question? Well, like I said, since some greedy slum lord bought and killed Al's Bar we've suffered a big blow. But yes, in some ways it's better and in some, it's not. At least 20 years ago it was new, on the cutting edge and exciting. But on the other hand there were too few places to play and many of them really sucked. The Masque is legendary but lasted for all too short of a time. And it's significance historically is way overrated. Al's Bar was much more important in the long run. There tended to be a tight knit clique with rules at the Masque too. If you weren't a member you had a hard sell. Since I've never believed punk was about wearing costumes I got hassled once by some of the Germs followers for being "normal". Some of the members of The Simpletones gave Nigel crap for wearing the wrong T-shirt. What the fuck? Their singer was dressed like a clown! But we were all very young and immature. There also wasn't the same number of people into it either. We did many shows with FEAR at Club 88 and The Hong Kong Cafe where together we drew maybe 20 people. Can you imagine that today? Well, maybe 20 people to see us, but FEAR?!

Today there is more acceptance from the clubs towards punk and there are more of them. By and large the punk bands are treated much better at the clubs too. And the attendance is larger on most nights, even the off ones. There's a much healthier punk community here now. I'm much happier playing these present day dives than I was playing the dives 23 years ago. If only the crowds weren't so geriatric.

MRR - What do you have to say to your lesions, I mean legions of dedicated fans???

BOB LEE - Stand up to be bent over!

Rotters Discography

Sit On My Face Stevie Nix / Amputee 7" 1978 (Rotten - the first one, there have been two)

Sink the Whales (Buy Japanese Goods) / Disco Queen 7" 1979 (Rotten)

Presumed Dead in Japan Lp 1989 (Baka)

Pull It and Yell! Lp / CD 2000 (Bacchus Archives)

Bukkake Beach Party/Meatwood Fuck/The Jism Kings/Kid Suck/SPIN IS SHIT Lp / CD 2001 or 2002 (who knows?)