Erika J.

8/8/1998

Maximum RocknRoll

Interview with

August Spies

Since 1992, the August Spies have been raising punk rock hell in Boston.

They have released three 7”s, plus a split 7” with 13 Tons of Napalm, all out on Rodent Popsicle Records. On Tario Records the August Spies have a split 7” with the Showcase Showdown. Long due, a 12” and CD are coming out this fall.

Known for being banned from almost every music venue in Boston at least once, the August Spies play straight ahead punk rock, no gimmicks, no frills, no posing. They have played countless shows with Toxic Narcotic, Showcase Showdown and the Unseen, yet unlike their fellow Bostonians have never had four wheels or time to tour the rest of the U.S.A.

So straight from the Center of the Universe, at a run down bar drinking cheap beer, I corner the four guys, friends since baby punkhood, known as the August Spies. Interview by Erika J.

Chris: vocals

Brian: bass

Adam: guitar

John: drums

Erika: Ok, let’s start picking on Chris first.

Chris: Yeah sure.

Erika: What’s up with the razor blades and the bottles and the bleeding and the shit and the self- mutilation?

Chris: Ok, but ask Adam, Brian and John first.

Erika: I’m asking you.

Brian: Then we’ll tell you what we think.

Chris: I’ve often thought that if you where to go nuts then, then fucking I see a lot of people who like go nuts on stage but I don’t think they’re going nuts enough. I just fucking think that when you go nuts you should just GO NUTS. If you want to like build up all this shit from work, from fucking hate, from fucking everything, when you’re the lead singer in a fucking punk band that’s like the best release you can do. I’m just fucking myself up, and it’s fun, and that’s it. I don’t do that at every show.

Brian: Only when nobody’s there.

Chris: Yah right, but that’s when I want to nuts. When no one’s there. Like at the Middle East when I cut my chest up. There were only like 15, 20 people there. It was awesome. I was pissed, and I went nuts.

Adam: Basically, Chris is saying he wants to be mental.

Chris: I also feel a lot of people are just posing when they think they are going crazy. Oh, they roll around on the ground and shit. Fuck that shit. If you’re going to go nuts, then you should go crazy.

Adam: Or don’t go nuts at all?

Chris: G.G. Allen was the king of that shit but he like did that all the time. I don’t want people to know when I’m going to do that shit, every show, because if I go crazy, then next show I’ll just stand.

Brian: Even normally you tend to go pretty crazy.

Adam: You wanna fit in.

Chris: Yeah, I just want to fit in.

Brian: He just wants to be punk as fuck.

Erika: All right, moving off of Chris’s blood all over my house, Brian you’re the next one to pick on.

Brian: Bring it on, bring it on.

Erika: How did you start the biggest street brawl I’ve ever seen in Allston, outside the old Ashford Terrace house?

Brian: When was that? 2-3 years ago?

Adam: Four years.

Brain: To start off, I lost my job that week, I was having trouble with my girlfriend- another note, this is the one time I ever acted up, acted violent towards another human being, well, a total stranger, whatever.

Adam: I’d like to tell this story (massive commotion)

Brian: .. all right, we’re at this party, hanging out, I was talking to this guy and I thought he was a real asshole, so for some unbeknownst reason I smashed him upside the face with a bottle. In turn a melee ensued..

Chris: Dude, I had a couch thrown on me, a sofa chair.

Brian: Yeah, I got wacked in the head..

Chris: Yep, and ran!

Brian: Yeah, I split, I was outta there..

Chris: and me and Adam had to fight our way out of the party!

Adam: Brian ninjas out of the room and is gone in like 2 seconds, and me and Chris are standing there with like 10 big buys staring down at us..

Chris: yeah!

Adam: ..and then they fucked us up.

Brian: ..and after getting stitched up at the hospital, a bunch of months go by, like many months..

Chris: We played with the Blanks 77 at the Causeway, it was a really good show, and we all stopped to get cigarettes on the way home. So we’re walking down the street to a party at Adam’s house, at Ashford Terrace, and the guy recognized me. “You’re the dude!” and then you ran out, again.

Brian: He had a bottle and was going to smash me..

Chris: ..and me and Adam were alone, again, with like 6 dudes, or 8 dudes or some shit..

Brian: I’m like the biggest pussy in the world. I ought to have a vagina.

Chris: ..the whole party.

Adam: .. the whole living room. I don’t know how we got outta there.

Brian: At the same time my brother was coming in, and saw them going after you guys and shit, and he ran into the party at Adam’s house, and everyone came running out.

Adam: They went for Chris and I grabbed the guy by his head and next thing I know I look up and 30 dudes ran out of our house, like the whole party, and some other guys came from the other party where the 7 guys came from, so it was about 30 on 30 in the street in front of my house. It ended when Justin came running out of my house screaming at the top of his lungs- big skinhead guy with Beethoven tattooed on his leg- and smashed a cinder block in the middle of the street. Everyone looked up at the same time from the huge brawl, and the cops were coming up the street.

Erika: Was it worth it?

Brian: It was the worst thing I ever did.

Adam: ..and we all ran, and I was the only one to end up going to jail, out of all the people who were actually there. I was the only one who ended up going to court after that!

Brian: I’m very, very sorry.

Adam: I spent six months of my life dealing with that shit.

Erika: OK, John, by personal observation, most good punk rock drummers are either pissed off or crazy..

John: Oh shit.

Erika: ..or a combination of both- what pisses you off?