The end of a Midgetmen show is one of the best things to experience in Austin. That’s worded badly, but they’ll appreciate the jab. Exploding in a frenzy of sloppy, beer-fueled guitar excess, the Midgetmen’s finale is a tough act to follow, and the energy of their live shows has consistently placed the group among the top punk acts in the Austin Music Awards. Over the course of two albums, the second recorded after the departure of frontman Keith Shepherd, the foursome has crafted songs that range from ridiculously fun and juvenile pop-punk to surprisingly understated, melodic rock, but always with a loose humor and raucous attitude. This Friday at Emo’s Lounge, the Midgetmen celebrate their 5th anniversary of survival as a band in spite of themselves, and they’ve put together an all-star lineup of past Austin Sound featured bands to celebrate: Golden Bear, Mice and Rifles and Peel. Buy the guys some drinks!
Profile: The Midgetmen
Year Formed:
October 2001 (first practice), December 2001 (first house party show), April 2002 (first real show at Beerland)
Members/Instruments played:
Alex Victoria - Guitars/Vocals
Jon Loyens - Guitars/Vocals
Justin Petro - Drums
Marc Perlman - Bass/Vocals
Former Bands/Side Projects:
AV: My burgeoning solo career. I’m tired of sharing money, pussy and drugs with these assholes.
MP: Does being in high school orchestra count as a former band? Does writing software for a living count as a side project? I doubt it on both cases and our true side project, Double Secret Probation, has been on hiatus since our second practice when Alex made us drink lukewarm Steel Reserve.
Albums:
Pool Party Emergency (11/02 - Midgetmen Records)
Garage Justice Vol. 1 Compilation (9/03 - Deep Eddy Records)
High Life (4/04 - Old Patton Records)
Fat Jackson & The Chipped Ham (Before Chinese Democracy, hopefully. Jon is actually building a studio above his new garage that will be complete this summer and then we will get back to work on the rock opera.)
Influences:
AV: Money, Pussy, and Drugs
JL: Dinosaur Jr., Pixies, Richard Lloyd, Robert Quine.
JP: 70’s Punk, 50’s pop, 20’s swing, 90’s ska, 80’s hardcore.
MP: Neil Young, Mike Watt, not that I’ll ever achieve what they have.
Strangest comment or comparison ever made about your music:
AV: “You write great songs, but should really think about practicing more often.”
JL: Punk Planet compared us to Sonic Youth meets the Cars. MaximumRocknroll compared us to Pavement, Mission of Burma and the New York Dolls.
JP: “You guys are in a band?”
MP: “Your drummer is the greatest living drummer I have ever seen.”
Favorite local bands:
AV: The Misguided Lemming (defunct)
JL: Mice and Rifles, Golden Bear, Brothers and Sisters, Elvis on Speed
JP: The Midgetmen
MP: I’ll just add Just Guns, Lions, Los Hispanos UK, and La La Land to the other guys’ lists. I like bands whose names begin with the letter L apparently.
Favorite local venue:
AV: The Chain Drive
JL: Parish (To actually see a show) and Emo’s (To hang out at the same time)
JP: Emo’s and Stubb’s (inside)
MP: Parish. I have some fond memories of Guided By Voices, Drive-By Truckers, Stephen Malkmus, and troughs filled with Rolling Rock.
Upcoming shows scheduled:
Friday May 11th @ Emo’s Lounge - Our 5 year anniversary w/ Golden Bear, Peel, Mice & Rifles. DJ sets provided by Team Fabrication.
Saturday June 23rd @ Stubb’s (inside) - I’m still putting together the bill.
Saturday July 7th @ Emo’s (inside) - w/ Built By Snow and Seneca Hawk
Shows over the next month that you’re excited to see:
JP: Our 5 year show, screw other bands! Most marriages don’t last this long and we don’t even get to have sex with each other. So, I guess that is kind of like being married.
Everyone: The Hold Steady, The Wrens (though these shows are more than a month away)
Some of your favorite albums from the past year:
Boris w/ Michio Kurihara “Rainbow”
Black Moth Super Rainbow “Dandelion Gum”
Thermals “The Body, The Blood, The Machine”
Built To Spill “You In Reverse”
Islands “Return to the Sea”
Twilight Singers “Powder Burns”
Hold Steady “Boys and Girls in America”
Decemberists “The Crane Wife”
Menomena (s/t)
Ladyhawk (s/t)
Ideal band (past or present) to open for on a national tour:
Everyone: The Wrens, The Hold Steady, The Thermals, Pavement, Springsteen, Dinosaur Jr., Pixies, Sonic Youth, Neil Young, The Frames, GBV, Dinosaur Jr.
MP: Anyone who will have us.
Austin Sound questions:
What would y’all consider the highlight of the past five years?
AV: Touring. Also, getting discounted drinks because Marc knows all the bartenders in Austin
JL: Our two tours through the midwest… the ultimate Brodeo.
JP: Any of the times we’ve played a club for the first time. This is especially the case for places like Emo’s and Stubb’s where we have seen great bands play. Other highlights include conning mass market media outlets to put our names in print and any moment we’ve spent on the road… except maybe Abilene. That was scary.
MP: Playing Alex and Bryon’s joint bachelor party at the Double Down in Las Vegas. Playing a Neil Young cover at Jon’s wedding a few weeks ago. Stealing some guy’s beer at a house party in Omaha and replacing it with my empties. Hightailing it out of Abilene with our $200 guarantee and thinking we might get killed for not knowing Eric Clapton’s “Cocaine”. Getting paid with a check in Manhattan, Kansas. Playing a Best Buy parking lot in College Station.
Who’s your all-time favorite midget man (or woman):
AV: Beetlejuice
JL: I like all the little people.
JP: Me. Damnit.
MP: Nelson de la Rosa, Pedro Martinez’s good luck charm during the Red Sox 2004 season.
Song Introduction:
AV: Shitbox - Our only song that’s about something important.
JL: Shitbox - Alex tried to write a song that sounded like Purple Rain. He failed in the best way possible. I wrote the verse lyrics about a girl. The guys changed them to be about a car… a definite improvement.
MP: Shitbox - Never to be removed from our setlist, because even when the show goes horribly wrong, it can be saved by an extended outro complete with Alex pounding a shoe or cinderblock against his guitar. An entire bad week at work can be completely forgotten in those 4 or 5 minutes.
Sound Off:
JP: We’re the most fun, drunk, endearing assholes you’ll ever get to see live and drink beer with afterwards. We’re everything that’s right about rock and roll and nothing that’s not. We’re hoping to only reach stardom 20 years from now, kind of like the Pixies. We’re certain to have influenced a generation of talent by then. Then again, another 5 years of this might kill us.
AV: Is this a rhetorical question?
MP: I’ve managed to arrange quite a lot of ridiculous stuff for us and I think it’s been worth all the frustration. From being mentioned in SPIN to us actually playing a show in the first place to all the dumb conversations we’ve had between the four of us, sometimes I forget what life was like before The Midgetmen… but I’m pretty sure this is better than the alternatives.
Mp3’s from High Life:
Shitbox
Not Enough
Reunion
Websites:
www.themidgetmen.com
Myspace
