John: So Hognose, what the hell is going on with you guys?
Shane: Man, we are just trying not to die from this fucking Texas heat! Skeeter prints shirts in a big ol� warehouse with no AC, and I think he�s in the most danger of expiration. Keep him in your prayers, please.
Really we�re just playing shows, thinking about more touring, and writing new shit. That�s really the main focus right now, writing.
John: How would you describe the difference between Longhandle and El Sombrero?
Shane: Well, I think that with Longhandle, we were out to make a straight-up rock record. You know, balls to the wall, full throttle shit. With El Sombrero, I think it�s a lot more diverse. It also seems more focused to me. With Longhandle, we basically just recorded our live set; this time we played around a lot more in the studio. Also, with El Sombrero, there are hints of things to come. Possibly stranger things� who knows? It�s also better sonically.
Skeeter: Also, we have a new drummer on El Sombrero. His name is Todd Dillon. He�s a little stranger.
Shane: Yeah, the reason Dillon�s not here is because he�s in the trunk, in the basement, with the ball gag.
John: How long did it take you guys to crank this album out? And how live was the recording? It sounds like y�all just went in there and pounded out a mess of great songs.
Shane: All said and done, it took about a month and a half. We did the drum tracks first, with scratch guitar, and then we tracked everything else. We do want to experiment with a more live environment next time around, though. Try and change things up a bit.
Skeeter: That sounds like a lot of time, but Elizondo is no tyrant. We drank a lot of coffee, smoked a lot, discussed countless non-music topics, ate a bunch of Texadelphia sandwiches (there`s this place here in Texas called Texadelphia. It`s a sandwich shop where they make Philly cheese steaks!) and pizza. It was real low-key. We worked with Dave on both of our records; he�s a real good cat, easy going and good at his job.
John: �Muffin� seems like a bit of a departure for you, style-wise. How did that song come about?
Shane: Well, you see, John, we don�t really consider ourselves as having a style, per say. If we like something, we play it. If not, we don�t. So many bands say, �We�re this kind of band,� or, �Dude, I just wanna have a band that sounds like Band X.� We think when you go into it with that attitude you instantly close a lot of doors. We don�t want to do that. We just wanna have a good time, all the time.
Sol: Plus Skeeter was high.
Skeeter: Right. I was running an experiment that lasted longer than planned. Mother Nature wrote the first six minutes of that song, the rest was written by an amateur chemist from right outside Houston.
John: As implausible as this sounds, let�s say I have a friend who�s never heard of you. How�d you describe your sound?
Shane: Not nu metal.
Skeeter: Believe it or not, this happens all the time and I usually just say, �Are you familiar with the Melvins?�
If they say, �No,� I say, �We sound like Metallica,� and if they say, �Yes,� I say, �We sound just like Clutch�s retarded step-cousin, the embarrassing one in the backward pants.�
John: Now I gotta give this friend a five song Hognose sampler. What songs should I pick?
Shane: 1. �Get Your Hands Off My Neck.� 2. �Warren Oates.� 3. �The First Song.� 4. �El Chamuco.� 5. �Muffin.�
John: Like an onion, you have many layers. Like an onion, you also make me cry. If I were to peel back the layers of Hognose, what influences would I find festering within?
Shane: Well, we have a pretty broad palette of tastes between the four of us. Here�s some bands that we like: Ween, Helios Creed, Butthole Surfers, John Coltrane, Buck Owens, The Residents, Negativland, Perez Prado, Zappa, Parlaiment/Funkadelic, The Flaming Lips, The Ramones, Scratch Acid, Herbie Hancock, Los Lobos, lots of country, punk, rock, and of course Melvins, Clutch, and Black Sabbath. Just to name a few. But, like Skeeter says, we�re just as influenced by the bad shit as the good shit, ya know? Ya gotta have shitty Mexican food so you know what good Mexican food is. We�re also heavily influenced by titties and beer.
John: Surprisingly, that didn`t make me cry. MTV played some of your music on their Road Rules/Real World challenge. What did they use, and are your rolling in cash residuals yet?
Shane: They used �Black Angus� from Longhandle, and �Local Honey� from El Sombrero! Yeah�I went out and got my solid gold rocket-car just this morning. It�s all really pretty fucking exciting. State of Texas-shaped pool, fur coat for my llama, you know� that�s how I roll.
Sol: And I got me a crack habit... and a sprinkler for playin` in the yard!
Skeeter: Recently a company that makes motocross videos licensed a couple of our songs and I believe we�re going to be paid in motocross videos. Right now I am trying to swing a deal like that with the local grocery store.
John: I yanked this tidbit from your website:
�the dudes from Super Heavy even caught me breaking into their van without even a stitch of clothing on and they didn`t even go to work on my balls with an angle grinder or nothin`.
Why were you trying to break into their van? Is it common for Texans to be buck naked when committing felonies? Had they worked on Skeeter�s balls with an angle grinder, would this have caused a rift amongst the Arclight Family? Did this all come about because �SuperHeavyGoatAss� is a way cooler name than �Hognose�?
Sol: Actually, I`m pretty sure the whole reason Skeeter broke into their van that night was in the hopes that they would take to his ball sack with an angle grinder. I overheard him dictating notes to himself on his little tape recorder a while back. Apparently he had been planning this for a very long time.
Skeeter: None of that shit really happened. Remember dude? Sol? In addition, while SuperHeavyGoatAss is a much better name than Hognose, that has nothing to do with the aforementioned incident that never happened anyway. Nothing.
John: Speaking of the Arclight Family, are you their favorite? Don�t try to tell me that the label doesn�t have favorites, that they love each band equally, because that�s never true. And if you�re not the favorite, would you resort to sabotage, subterfuge, and other nefarious schemes to get in their good graces?
Shane: Nah, we think SuperHeavy is their favorite. Yeah� we�re gonna get those guys. What do you think we were doing in their van? There�s this trick where you stick the brake light wires in the gas tank�
Skeeter: DUDE! Didn�t happen.
John: Any good stories from the last tour? And how do you think it went overall?
Shane: It had its ups and downs, but overall it was a fucking blast. The standout shows were Wichita, Albuquerque, San Diego, and Glendale, CA. A few shows got cancelled, for various reasons� nothing too bad, though. Our homey, Mauro over at El Scorcho Booking, hooked that shit up real good.
Sol: Todd`s hair caught on fire, but we didn`t pull over. He was screaming like a little girl, saying, "Put it out! Put it out!" and doing that little my-hair`s-on-fire-dance. We just laughed and laughed.
Skeeter: That�s only a slight exaggeration. I was actually screaming like a real ugly woman with a long beard and on-fire hair (mostly goin�, �Fucking Jesus, I�m on fuckin� fire! Faaaaaaaak!�) while all of my mongoloid band mates laughed and asked if anybody smelled burning hair.
I�d like to add that the crew at Downtown Music in Little Rock will treat you good and make you laugh your ass completely off, but their band (Rwake) will make you shit your thong in paralyzed terror. So, take a lot of drawers along if you go there.
Shane: Oh yeah, there WAS that fucking speed freak who was cuttin� up his ol� lady in the hotel room above ours in the meth capital of the world, Phoenix.
We were all stoned as fuck, watching that flick Wonderland on HBO. It was the real scary part at the end where ol� John Holmes and all his cronies kill all those fuckers. So Skeeter goes to take a piss, and he comes back and says, �Did you guys hear all that fuckin� screamin�?� and we�re like, �What?� Then he says, �Yeah, I heard this chick screamin� upstairs.� Then I went to the bathroom, and I hear all these fucked up sounds, like liquid hitting the floor right above the bathroom, and I�m like, �What the fuck?�
So then I go lay back down and watch some more scary movie, and we start hearing shit getting dragged back and forth across the room upstairs, and kinda banging into the walls and shit, and Dillon says, �Goddamn, dude.� Three or four minutes go by, and the there�s this loud thud/thump sound that hits the floor up there, and I say, �Man, I think that was the head!�
That was fucking weird. Maybe you had to be there. We hate that town.
John: What are your upcoming tour plans (apart from revisiting the meth capital of the world)?
Shane: Well, we�re about to do some dates with the legendary Thor in August. Remember that guy from the �70�s? He�s the Viking rock dude who bends steel with his neck and shit. It should be a real hoot. Other than that, we�re gonna start going on short tours about once a month. It�s just not worth it to pay for all that gas to go play to nobody on shit nights in Podunk Fucking Nowhere, know what I mean? Work smart, man. Make it count.
Sol: We were gonna play at this rally for the Islamic Jihad, but when they heard our music they called us "infidels." Plus, when the girls show us their tits, someone might blame us for their being stoned to death. We don`t need that kind of press.
Skeeter: Right, we need the kind of press that makes people think we�re Good Charolette or Nickelback.
John: Gimmie a good recipe.
Skeeter: Two scoops fluorescent green plus two scoops fluorescent orange makes four scoops of real nice spice brown.
Shane: `Possum and `Taters
1 opossum, cut into serving pieces
Water to cover
2 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
4 baking size sweet potatoes, pared and quartered
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine, chopped
Skin and dress opossum. Put in Dutch oven and cover with water. Add salt and pepper. Cover and cook over medium heat until very tender. Place opossum pieces in center of large baking pan and arrange sweet potatoes around them. Sprinkle sugar and margarine over potatoes. Pour 2 cups of broth from cooked opossum over all. Place in preheated 375 degrees (Fahrenheit) oven and bake until potatoes are fork tender, slightly browned, and broth has evaporated.
Enjoy! |
