Beer. Bongs. Thrash! These are the primary interests of Richmond, Virginia's Municipal Waste. The Earache recording artist plays a toxic mix of thrash and hardcore in the tradition of such legendary crossover acts as Suicidal Tendencies, Voivod, and most of all, D.R.I. This jean-jacketed foursome's music has a fun, party side to it too, with a demeanor much like Murphy's Law. Having only released two albums, the group is young, although drummer, Dave Witte who has been pounding the skins for years, rounds them out. Witte brought with him a resume that included playing with such acts as Human Remains and Burnt by the Sun. The group may be young, but their current North American tour with Gwar and The Red Chord is affording the group road experience and massive crowd exposure. Metal Mayhem caught up with the band in Detroit, Michigan to discuss, among many subjects, how things are going touring with the world's most dangerous band. So kick back, crack open a cold one, light a fatty, and read what these "hazardous mutations" had to say concerning their current tour and what lies ahead for the band.
Metal Mayhem: Please introduce yourself and tell me what instrument you play.
Tony: I don't play an instrument., I sing.
Ryan: I play guitar.
MM: How is your tour going with Gwar and The Red Chord?
Tony: It's awesome! It has been really fun.
Ryan: Plush, man, we're reaping the benefits of it.
Tony: We're gaining a lot of weight, eating a lot of good food.
Ryan: ...getting fat.
MM: Have you been fed to the Feed the World Maggot or kissed the Cuddle Fish of
Cthulu yet?
Tony: Not yet.
Ryan: The Cuddle Fish stared our bass player dead in the eye with his eyeballs and he was frozen. He was speechless.
It was right in Phil's face and he couldn't move.
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MM: Speaking of tours, you guys have a sound that is very friendly to New York. Have you played any shows in New York? Tony: We played a show in New York, recently, and someone got stabbed. That kinda sucked. Ryan: We threw a trampoline out in the audience for people to jump off of. Security took the trampoline and it disgruntled the crowd a little bit, and someone got stabbed (laughs). |
MM: Have you guys ever had anything else like that happen?
Tony: No, we're not a violent band, and we definitely don't promote tough guy shit.
Ryan: We pretty much shun that stuff, so it's rare that it happened. But, yeah,
we've had some pretty wild shows in New York, I guess you could say.
MM: That leads into my next question: What is a Municipal Waste concert like?
Ryan: Stage dives, beer bongs, boogie boards, thrash.
Tony: He about covered that...dope smokin'.
Ryan: A lot of partying, a lot of fun, man.
MM: How do you guys feel about being admired by Brian Posehn (Mr. Show, The Devil's Rejects, Run Ronnie Run.)
Tony: It's awesome! I've be a Mr. Show fan forever. I grew up on that shit.
Ryan: He's a true metal head. He knows his shit, and the fact that he likes us is an honor.
Tony: He's a nice guy, too. I talk to him every once in a while.
Ryan: I want to see him wearing our shirt on VH1. I'm a big VH1 fan.
MM: Do you agree with his statement about your connection with D.R.I.?
Tony: I never actually read the interview. None of us read it. We just heard about it.
Ryan: I think I hear that every other night.
Tony: It's not a bad thing.
MM: So would you say D.R.I. is a big influence of yours?
Tony: Yeah, definitely, a huge influence.
MM: Who are some other influences you have?
Ryan: I like the Gin Blossoms.
Tony: G.B.
Ryan: Seven Mary Three
Tony: Spin Doctors, their later stuff. The later Spin Doctors stuff.
Ryan: That's metal, man! We wear our influences on our sleeve. It's pretty obvious where I'm copying the
riffs from.We like Razor.
Tony: ...Crumbsuckers
Ryan: ...Sacrifice, Ludichrist, Vio-lence
Tony: ...Hallows Eve. Hardcore bands: Attitude Adjustment, they're like a crossover band...Black Flag, Minor Threat, straight edge shit.
MM: You guys do a song, "Guilty of Being Tight", is that a play off of "Guilty of
Being White"?
Ryan: It's about being tight, man.
Tony: The title plays off that song.
Ryan: It's about being cool as shit.
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MM: Influences other than music, I see a horror influence with songs like
"Hazardous Mutation". Where do you get the inspiration to write songs like "The Thing" and "Terror Shark"? Ryan: Concepts, man, and horror movies have the coolest concepts. We're into themes. It might not be a specific horror movie, but the themes are interesting |
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MM: So you guys are definitely not a hardcore, straight edge band?
Ryan: We're pretty much the opposite.
Tony: I like a lot of those bands.
Ryan: I like the aggression of that music, and I like the shortness of their songs. We sing about monsters.
Tony: ...and beer
Ryan: ...and beer
MM: You guys currently have a video on MTV2 Headbanger's Ball. Tell me about making that video?
Ryan: This company, Day by Day, which is a local company and friends of ours in Richmond, Virginia. They shoot movies and do random...
Tony: They were graffiti kids who just started putting out their own shit, but instead of just doing graffiti, they
started doing music and sketch comedy.
Ryan: We thought they could capture one of our live shows, as is. So we had a live
show and that's where the video came from. We threw a few gore effects in. It was shot at a live show with people going crazy, and we threw a
little bit of blood in there.
Tony: We just filmed an entire life show, in it's entirety, and we're putting it out on DVD. It's a live, deluxe-edition of "Hazardous Mutations".
It's coming out with a CD and DVD. We're re-releasing "Hazardous Mutations”
with a bonus DVD for the same price. We
shot the show in the same place we did the video. It was at a club called "Alley Cats" in Richmond, Virginia.
Ryan: And Day by Day productions did that one as well.
Tony: It's pretty much an extended video of that video.
Ryan: With interviews with us in between.
Tony: We're a live band, so most of our videos are going to be us playing live.
Ryan: The crowd is what gets crazy, crazier than us, dude.
MM: Do you guys feed off your crowd?
Ryan: Definitely
Tony: Definitely
Ryan: Circle pit, man.
(Dave Wittie, drummer walks in)MM: You have an interesting album cover on "Hazardous
Mutations". How did you hook up with Ed Repka?
Dave: Tony and Ryan hooked it up with Ed
Repka. He's a famous old artist who did
a lot of great thrash records. His art
fit perfectly; he did a great job.
MM: When you guys were looking for artists, did you say, "whoa we need to get Ed
Repka"? He's done "Peace Sells", Death album, he's done a lot.
Ryan: Look right there, buddy, Death "Leprosy"! (Ryan pulls up his sleeve and shows me a detailed tattoo of the
leprous character on the album cover of Death's "Leprosy".) He did those first three Death albums. I have about thirty albums of Repka
art. As a thrash artist, he's amazing.
MM: Do you think you will use Repka for your next album?
Tony: No, I don't think so. We'll probably use somebody else. We try to use somebody different for each
album.
Ryan: We try to mix it up.
MM: Do you have an idea about who you will use?
Ryan: You'll see. It's a surprise. It will
always be in your face, though. You'll know it's a fuckin' thrash album just by looking at it.
MM: So it will still have that '80s feel that "Hazardous" has?
Ryan: Always, man. A different concept, but that same
feel. When I would find records, the
album cover always drew me to it. Now, bands are doing all that digital artwork and it's just boring to me.
Tony: You look at the front of the record,
and then you look at the back and see what hardcore bands' shirts they are
wearing. If they have a Final Conflict or a D.R.I. shirt then they are probably cool. That's the key to buying an old thrash record.
MM: Have you written any new material?
Ryan: Yeah, we have about half of the new record written. We're moving on it.
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MM: Can you tell me anything about the new material? Tony: No, it's secret in the vault. We're working on it. It's gonna be a lot better! Ryan: We're stepping it up in the intensity. It's more abrasive. Tony: It's gonna be really good. You'll find out about it. We can't wait to get these tours over so we can put this record out. After this tour, we're gonna go out with Destruction and Sadus. |
MM: Tell me about the Destruction tour.
Ryan: It's coming up in two months, in January and February, and goes through the U.S. and Canada. The venues are going to be smaller.
I think it's going to be pretty wild, man. We don't have the dates yet, but
it's definitely happening. I'm very
excited to tour with two of my favorite bands.
(Land Phil, bassist, walks in.)MM: Tell me about your other project, Cannabis Corpse.
Phil: It's something I did when we had a month off. I took that month off and
worked on my eight track with my brother.
I cranked out all these tunes.
I've had this idea in my head for a while. I was just bored, so I did it.
It turned out pretty cool. I'll
have a CD together pretty soon. All the
artwork is done. It's all
finished. By the time we get out to
California, I'll have a bunch of copies to sell.
MM: What is Cannabis Corpse like?
Phil: It's straight up death metal, like
Cannibal Corpse, only it's about weed.
It's totally bad ass shit and it will revolutionize death metal...no, no,
no it probably won't. It will get swept
under the rug, but I did it because I was bored and I love death metal. The album is called "Blunted at Birth". Hopefully, people will like it.
My friends are putting it out on a label
called Force field Records. It's not
really a big thing. We're just doing it
as something to do. Apparently, it is
taking off pretty well as far as a project goes. People have heard about it everywhere I go, so that's cool.
MM: Any message you would like to rely to your fans?
Ryan: Smoke, beer…that's a good one.
Tony: Loan me two dollars!
Ryan: We need to borrow some money, fans! Buy me a drink.
Tony: (laughs) Thanks for coming out to our shows...
Ryan: ...thanks for coming to our shows and circle mosh your heads off!
Darren Cowan
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