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Punks Who Matter…Really! |
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FRESH FACES NEW ARTIST PROFILE by
Tom
Lounges Rolling Stone Magazine recently picked them
as one of “The 10 Bands You Need
To Know About” and MTV has likewise tagged the band as one of
their hot picks of the year.
Though not usually in
agreement with most mainstream media when it comes to musical artists,
since most amount simply to being the “flavor of the day,” S.T.U.N. truly is an awesome band. Serious rock fans weaned on old school punk really do
need to experience this ultra-aggressive quartet.
As someone that used to pogo in the late
1970s at Chicago punk havens like O’Banion’s and LeMere Viper, this
writer has never been too fond of post-Green Day bands waving the
“punk rock” banner. Give
me old tracks by The Clash, The Dead Boys or Johnny Thunders any day
over the processed crap by the Sums, Blinks and Charlottes...
It took watching only
a third of their 14-minute promo-only DVD to know S.T.U.N. was
channeling the true spirit of punk rock which had been born kicking,
screaming and spitting back in 1976.
The danger, urgency
and authenticity of punk rock’s founding bands is quickly felt in
their music and performance.
By the time the DVD spun to its conclusion, I was already on the
phone with their record label demanding to dialogue with them for this
month’s “Fresh Faces” profile
feature.
Christiane J. spoke to
Midwest
BEAT while on the
road with the “Van’s WARPED Tour.”
Though originally booked for the Second Stage, after just two
over-the-top shows, S.T.U.N. were bumped up to a Main Stage slot.
“That was just such an incredible compliment,” said J.
He feels that having done earlier support tours with bands like
The Used, The Vines, Bad Religion and Jane’s Addiction, helped make
them ready for an experience like WARPED.
“Music saved me when
I was a kid, because it was the only thing that made me really feel
alive,” said guitarist Neil Spies, the band’s lyricist and primary
songwriter.
“Rock music and punk
in particular is about rebellion and kicking complacency in the teeth.
That’s what we do and that’s what too many other bands today
are not doing,” continued Spies. “When we talk to kids who come see our shows, they are
hungry for a band like us. They’re
sick of how music today is so fabricated.
The kids aren’t stupid. They
want a band who isn’t playing for the marketing department and the
radio programmers and the accountants.
They want a band who is playing for them. That band is us!”
“When we play live,
everything is on the line at every show,” added J. “There is absolutely no telling what is going to happen
next, because we all get caught up in the frenzy of the moment and the
energy of the music.”
J.’s crazy “human
fly” actions and wild convulsing while performing has resulted in a
few on stage mishaps and blood-letting incidences with his band mates.
Watching him recalls
early Stooges-era Iggy Pop in ways.
“He’s a total
madman up there,” said Spies. “That’s
true,” agrees J. “I
think that I get so caught up in everything because I didn’t grow up
with this kind of music. When
I was growing up, all we had was a pop radio station, so I never really
heard any of those kinds of bands.”
Relocating from his
sleepy, backwards hometown to Los Angeles, was like a musical baptism of
fire for him.
Like a child that wants to sample the whole candy store after
tasting its first chocolate bar, Christiane told of how he started going
to “Open Mic” nights, where he would watch in amazement as a
performer would pour his heart and soul out on stage.
He had never sang in his youth nor entertained the idea of being
a rock singer, until the “Open Mic” experiences.
“I knew I had to
have a band, so I put an ad in the local newspaper here [Los Angeles]
and Neil called and we hooked up,” recalled J.
Spies had been writing and recording songs since a very young age
and knew the stuff he was writing needed a real band and more than just
him and an home recording unit.
“I knew Nick S. from us having bussed tables together and we got him to play the bass. We knew Bobby Alt [drums] from seeing him playing with other bands in local clubs and got him to come in with us. Once the four of us got together, we just hit the ground running. We’ve been running ever since.” |
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Pretty heady praise
from some pretty heavy hitters for a band of snarly Los Angeles misfits
who came to call themselves –– Scream
Toward the Uprising of Non-Conformity ––
wisely shortened to the simple acronym, S.T.U.N.
My hope was to be able
to offer BEAT readers a chance to win this very same DVD.