Fast Food & Fast Talk with the Fastbacks!
by Keyan Meymand - From Fizz Magazine
Oh, the Fastbacks. They are the punk band that time forgot. But people over the last few years have FINALLY been paying more attention and respect to these rockin' pop punk VIP's. You may not be aware of their remarkably poor luck with drummers, but let's just say they've gone through too many to count in their 15 years as a band. I don't have anything to say, and they say plenty themselves, so read on.
FIZZ: Please give a brief description - for those of you who don't know - about how you got together.
KIM: How we got what?
FIZZ: Together.
LULU: In high school.
FIZZ: How much metal have you all listened to?
KIM: The good metal.
FIZZ: The good metal?
LULU: I haven't listened to much, except for the good metal.
KIM: Older metal.
FIZZ: What is good metal, according to you guys?
KIM: Deep Purple is good metal. Foghat is the good metal. Old Scorpions is OK metal. Girl School.
FIZZ: Sabbath?
KIM: I didn't really - they're OK.
FIZZ: Because Kurt, the solo in "Future Right" [from their new record Answer the Phone, Dummy] is the most metal solo by a punk band I've ever heard.
KURT: It's a kickass rock-and-roll metal solo!
FIZZ: Kim was kind of telling me the story of how that happened earlier.
KIM: We were trying to figure out a solo to put in, and then we were talking about 'Eruption' by Van Halen. And we were like, 'Why don't you just play that one.'
KURT: I don't know how to play the "Eruption" solo.
FIZZ: You almost did!
KURT: Some of it sounds sort of like it. We kind of had second thoughts about it, and then we rang the alarm bell on it. [you can hear a bell in the background of the song].
FIZZ: How do you think Seattle has normalized after the whole 'grunge' hype?
KURT: We don't pay attention to that.
KIM: Has it normalized?
LULU: We don't know the answer to that, really.
FIZZ: For a long time there was little or no underground, because so much went mainstream. It got weird.
LULU: The only thing that I thought got weird is the Off Ramp [Seattle club].
KIM: Let's not talk about the Off Ramp, I used to like the Off Ramp.
LULU: That was kind of the first place after the big nothing happened. And the first club that opened after that was the Off Ramp. It was like the place to go. And now when you go there it's just a bunch of geeks. A kind of scary clientele.
FIZZ: Isn't it like a meat market now?
LULU: It's like a heavy metal place.
KIM: It's kind of grungy.
LULU: It's got a lot of piercing, body piercing…
KIM: It's got a lot of MTV Real World looking people who go there. It will probably be on the Seattle version of that show.
FIZZ: Do you feel underappreciated?
LULU: No.
KIM: Not lately.
LULU: I did, like, ten years ago. But there was nobody listening to music, so it was kind of like, 'Where is everybody?'
KURT: "There's nobody listening to me."
LULU: Because thee was nobody around listening to what I was trying to say.
KIM: It's way better now than it ever has been. The people who bitch about it were not in a band in '83 and didn't play at the Hall of Fame. [What Hall of Fame she's taking about, I don't know].
LULU: I think we're really lucky, because we get to play fun shows that we like to do, usually, and 95% of the time the shows are ones that are pretty fun, with bands that we like.
FIZZ: What's the biggest "rock band" you've ever played with?
LULU: PiL.
KIM: The Ramones
LULU: The PiL show was bigger- it was at the Paramount.
KURT: (mumbling) It was stupid.
LULU: I didn't say it was a good show.
FIZZ: Did Johnny Rotten give you hassle?
LULU: No, but we had to play on a stage in front of the curtains. And we only had five feet, so the drum set had to be set up in the front, in the same line with us. It was, like, me and then Kim, and then the drums and then Kurt.
KIM: They were so punk that they couldn't tear down in between sets. They were kind of standing behind the curtain.
LULU: It was a really bad show, but that was probably the biggest place. And then the Ramones- she's right- was probably second.
FIZZ: And where was that?
KIM & LULU: The Eagles.
FIZZ: The Eagles?
KIM: The Eagles Hall. How many people was that? Like 3,000 or something?
LULU: I don't know.
KIM: It was pretty big. It was like a big, long hall.
LULU: (perplexingly) It's just like what you imagine an Eagles' Hall would be like- with a balcony and a big open area on the stage.
KURT: Pretty well torn down now, isn't it?
LULU: They're open, it's just not a thing anymore.
KIM: The Doors played there. (to Lulu) Didn't your sister go to that show?
LULU: Mmm Hmm.
KURT: Did they pass around a doobie?
KIM: So the biggest show was when we opened for the Doors.
FIZZ: (to Kim & Lulu) Who do you think you sound like, as singers?
KIM: Nobody. Us.
LULU: I don't know. Who do you think we sound like?
FIZZ: I think you kind of sound like each other.
LULU: A lot of people think that . . . Yeah, we don't sound like too many good singers, real singers. I mean we don't sound like real singers.
FIZZ: (confused) Well, what are real singers? Like, Debby Harry?
KIM: I'd rather sound like a younger girl than an older woman.
LULU: We don't sound like the Go Go's, really. What other girl singers are there?
KURT: That's about it.
KIM: Yeah, that's it!
FIZZ: Kathleen Hanna?
LULU: There's got to be some other ones. Why can't we think of them?
FIZZ: Well, there's Diana Ross.
LULU: Oh, there's the Breeders. I think we could be kind of like them, because they aren't super-singers. Great songs, though.
KIM: I think they sound like girl singers. I don't like people that try to sound like fake country.
LULU: Women! (growling) Rwauar, rwuaur!
KIM: The Breeders are great.
KURT: Do you like country music?
KIM: I wish we could sound more like Leslie Gore.
FIZZ: Who's Leslie Gore?
KIM: She wrote 'It's My Party.' She had a great voice.
FIZZ: Has it gotten easier in 15 years to be women in a band, instead of it being a novelty thing?
LULU: You know, it was never hard.
FIZZ: Really? That's cool. Do you think that it's because this is Seattle, and maybe Seattle's a little more open minded?
LULU: It's because we were more open minded.
KIM: It's weird, because we've never cared or thought about it too much.
LULU: But that is a question that people always ask, "What's it like to be women in a band?" I don't know, we were never men in bands, so we don't have much to compare it to. But yeah, it's fun.
KIM: It's way cooler to be a woman in a band. (laughter).
LULU: Yeah, Kurt got gyped out. He was supposed to be a girl.
KIM: We're going to just like fuck over all of the men. That's what we're into. That's our new thing- fucking over the men.
FIZZ: Do you feel fucked over, Kurt? (laughs)
LULU: He's not talking anymore. I know we're probably pretty boring to interview, because we don't really care.
FIZZ: Well, start to care!
KURT: We're punk, because we don't care about anything.
KIM: From here on, we'll start to care.
FIZZ: Excellent! I'm glad that the second phase has begun.
KIM: It's hard to be a woman in this band. You want me to tell you why? I want a woman to interview me! Fuck you. You come in, and you think you can talk about issues that you don't even know about. [Uh, I should probably tell you that Kim was smiling and laughing during all of this, so she really doesn't hate me, I think.] We were trying to make you think that it was going to be an easy interview, when really it's going to be …
KURT: What about a man's rights and a man's views?
LULU: Hey, you know there's a men's movement right now.
[OK, here's where things start to get pretty silly. Before the interview, Kim and I stopped to get a bunch of beer for them and a bottle of cheap wine for me. By now it's all pretty much gone. Also, my questions start getting pretty goofy.]
FIZZ: (laughing) Oh god, the men's movement is silly! So Kurt, if you had the means, what country would the Fastbacks take over and run?
KIM: Oh, god, that's obvious!
KURT: We'd take over America and then run away.
LULU: No . . .
KIM & LULU: Japan. [The Fastbacks are Rock Stars in Japan and are adored by thousands, if not millions.]
Kim: We'd take it over and never come back here.
LULU: It's the best country in the whole world to play in a band, as far as we know. Of course, we've only been to…
KIM: We've gone to Canada.
KURT: We've only played three shows in Japan, so we probably know exactly what it's like to live there.
LULU: No, it was what country would your band want to take over. I wouldn't want to live there either.
FIZZ: Well, you could take it over, take all of it's money and still live over here!
KURT: Oh, OK.
FIZZ: Do you think you're ever going to tour with the Posies? [Kim is married to Posie Ken Stringfellow.]
KIM: We'll do shows with them- I don't know.
KURT: The Posies might not ever go on tour again.
FIZZ: Are the Posies breaking up?
KIM: Nope. They're getting a new kickass drummer.
FIZZ: (sensing a pattern) Uh, oh! Are they going to have the same Fastbacks problem now?
KIM: They might! (laughs)
LULU: They might end up with one of our old drummers.
KIM: Yeah, they're working on two of our old drummers.
FIZZ: Why don't you and the Posies just find one robotic drummer that can be on call 24 hours a day!
LULU: You know why, we all want to do more than just play rock. We want to do more than just play in the Fastbacks, and that's all the drummers ever want to do. They want the band to be famous.
FIZZ: So why don't they be in the Posies, too?
KIM: Well, they're trying.
LULU: It's kind of working that way
.
FIZZ: One interview with you guys asked if you sounded different than when you started, and you said that you sounded exactly the same. Were you joking?
KIM: Well, I think that we just kind of do what we do.
LULU: I know what it is, we can do it without having to practice.
KIM: I think Kurt writes better songs than he in 1981.
KIM & LULU: Hmm, no, just different.
LULU: My opinion of this new record is that it's like early Fastbacks, in that the songs are either one minute or really long, Kurt used to do the anthem. The long five-minute songs.
FIZZ: If you could be a person of the opposite sex, who would you be?
KIM: I don't know if I'd want to be anybody of the opposite sex.
LULU: But if there was anybody, who would it be?
KIM: Rusty Willoughby [from Flop].
LULU: Good one, that's a really great one.
KIM: He always wears a straw hat and writes good songs.
KURT: Wears a straw hat?
KIM: He does! Kurt, I know you're their producer, but he's worn it.
KURT: (answering the question) Jean Enerson! [local TV anchorwoman]. She gets away with stealing stuff.
FIZZ: What does she steal?
KIM: She supposedly goes into- where was it?
KURT: Frederick & Nelson, and the Seattle Art Museum gift shop.
KIM: Supposedly she's a kleptomaniac. And what's that girl on Northwest Afternoon, that soap opera lady?
FIZZ: Cindy…
KIM: Yeah, Cindy Whatever. A friend of mine up in west Seattle says that she's a crazy, wine-drinkin' person- all the time, and does coke.
FIZZ: How many times have you almost broken up?
KIM: There's no number.
LULU: Only once.
KURT: It depends on what you consider breaking up.
LULU: Well, I left twice, but that's it right?
KIM: I left once.
FIZZ: Weren't you just on vacation?
KURT: Was the cat really under the house, or does it really run away? Lulu was under the house a couple of times.
LULU: Yeah, I went under the house for a while, but other than that, no. The band's never broken up except for that one time.
FIZZ: What happened?
LULU: Well, when Nate went to Alaska to go fishing, and Kim was off on her little tangent.
KURT: She was on vacation.
KIM: I had my own little vacation.
LULU: And then Kurt was in the Young French [sic] Fellows. And Kurt disagrees with this, but we had a reunion show, and that's what brought us back together again.
FIZZ: (to Lulu) You work in the movie business?
KURT: She's a reunion show specialist.
LULU: I'm a camera person. I either work as a camera person or a director of photography or I direct music videos.
FIZZ: What videos have you done?
LULU: I've just done the Fastbacks and The Meices.
FIZZ: Which one?
LULU: This song called "Don't Let the Soap Run Out."
FIZZ: Was that the one on MTV or the eMpTy one?
LULU: It was the eMpTy one. I'd like to see the one that was on MTV. Did you see it?
FIZZ: I saw it once.
LULU: How was it?
FIZZ: It was kinda boring.
LULU: I was supposed to direct that one, but this other girl did it.
KIM: But she could do it for like $3 and a case of beer.
LULU: But I mostly have done commericals, and I've done movies, but probably none that you've ever heard of.
KIM: The Year of My Japanese Cousin.
FIZZ: What's the most Spinal Tap moment you've ever had?
KIM: Our whole bad, basically. Obviously, what do you think it is- it's the drummers.
FIZZ: But none of them have ever exploded.
KIM: But we don't know what they do when they get home.
KURT: Maybe they exploded and got over it.
KIM: A couple drummers I haven't seen again.
FIZZ: Are you guys still in touch with Duff.
KIM: Yeah.
LULU: Right now he's rumored to be clean and sober.
KIM: He's in Seattle now. He's in that band Guns N' Roses.
LULU: He plays bass in Guns N' Roses. Your readers should know that. He's a good guy. He actually played the drums with us … when was that? And where was that?
FIZZ: Recently?
LULU: Within the last year, yeah. Maybe last winter?
KIM: It was pretty shitty.
LULU: Yeah, but he did pretty good considering he was really drunk and hadn't heard the song in his whole life.
FIZZ: Would you guys open for G'n'R if he asked you to?
LULU: Sure.
KIM: Oh, I would.
LULU: I would just because I'd like to play on a big stage with good monitors.
KIM: I'd like to play with a teleprompter, too.
(everyone laughs)
FIZZ: It's so hard to remember those lyrics, isn't it?
KIM: Yes, it is!
LULU: Do they really play with a teleprompter?
KURT: Frank Sinatra does.
KIM: Yeah, OK, we'll get one… I guess I'm not the only one who forgets lyrics.
FIZZ: Yeah, but you don't write them [Kurt does], so you have an excuse.
LULU: Every single show, we always play "K Street," and she always forgets the words.
FIZZ: What is your favorite Taco Bell menu item?
KIM: We visited the company store.
FIZZ: Where is it?
KIM: In Irvine, CA. You can actually buy beans and stuff there.
FIZZ: Can you really?
LULU: Yeah, we bought all that stuff. Chips and salsa. So here's what I have every time- a $.59 soft taco, a $.59 hard taco, hot sauce on both.
FIZZ: Have you ever had the green sauce?
LULU: Yeah, he always gets the green sauce.
KURT: The best things are the $.59 bean burritos with green sauce and lettuce.
KIM: See, I don't have a favorite thing.
LULU: How did you know that we liked Taco Bell?
FIZZ: Well, I knew that Kurt did, because I read it in an old Young Fresh Fellows interview.
LULU: The thing is, I wouldn't want to eat there twice a day, every day…
KIM: Well, we do!
LULU: They have something new, the 7-layer burrito, and if you have $.59 it's a good deal.
KURT: It's 99- get it straight -it's $.99.
(This Taco Bell discussion continues on for a bit.)
FIZZ: What member of Mudhoney do you each most resemble?
KURT: Let's answer for each other.
LULU: I think we better.
KURT: Kim is Matt Lukin.
LULU: No way, Kim is Mark Arm.
FIZZ: I'd have to say Matt Lukin. Are you as big of a stoner as Matt Lukin?
KIM: Me? No. I'm not a stoner.
KURT: Lulu is Steve Turner.
LULU: You think so? See, I would say that you are, too.
KURT: No, you are.
LULU: Actually, I don't think that any of us look like any of them.
KIM: I wish there was another member of Mudhoney that we could be like.
LULU: Yeah.
KIM: OK, well, I like Bob Whittaker
[Hairy Crater Head and Mudhoney's mgr.]
LULU: We all like Bob Whittaker.
KIM: That's what I aspire to be in life, more like Bob.
LULU: Well, I think this last week I'm just like Chris Cornell. Only he's not in Mudhoney.
KIM: Sometimes I think of myself as kinda like Chris Cornell, too.
LULU: He's just exactly like me. He plays like me, he looks like me, it's just amazing.
KIM: I sing totally like him. You just haven't heard me, but I do.
LULU: What I want to know is why do all those Seattle bands play those Mustang guitars and those funny-shaped Fender guitars?
FIZZ: Because Sonic Youth does. And if Sonic Youth thinks you're cool…
LULU: So do you think Sonic Youth started it, or do you think Nirvana started it?
FIZZ: I think Sonic Youth started it, because people were doing it before Nirvana.
LULU: The reason I ask, is because they're just the dumbest guitars.
FIZZ: I think they kinda look cool.
LULU: I don't.
FIZZ: Well, they're no Flying V. What kind of guitar do you have?
LULU: A Les Paul Jr.
KURT: Is someone making burritos? You start mentioning Taco Bell, and it smells like Taco Bell.
(Here is where Side A of my tape ran out, and once I didn't notice for a while. When I did, I flipped it over and asked the same questions over again.)
FIZZ: Kurt, if you were to put backmasked messages in your music, what would they say?
KURT: They'd ask people if they like the sound of boogie-oogie rock-and-roll music.
FIZZ: Hey! That's not what you said the first time!
KURT: What did I say the first time?
FIZZ: You said, "Eat your own dump!"
KURT: Oh, OK. That, too. That'd be on there, too.
LULU: Kim would put "the pope has a big cock."
FIZZ: If you could all annex yourselves onto another band, what would it be?
KIM: Girl School.
LULU: I'd be the drummer of the Fastbacks. Either that, or drum for another band, like… The Meat Puppets (everyone laughs). No, somebody, like Shonen Knife, or something.
KURT: How about Supersnazz?
KIM: Supersnazz or Supersuckers.
FIZZ: Supertramp?
[Webmaster suggests: Superfan]
KURT: Yeah, Supersnazz, Supertramp…
FIZZ: Supersuckers!
LULU: I think I would want to drum for one of those bands.
FIZZ: What's your favorite drink?
KIM: Budweiser.
LULU: Tanqueray and tonic. And if you go to a Mexican restaurant, you gotta have gold margaritas on the rocks, with salt.
KIM: You have to have a burrito and beer.
LULU: Budweiser is the only beer to drink, by the way.
FIZZ: Ugh. None of this Seattle scene Redhook [a local microbrew] trendiness?
KIM: No way. (joking) I like grunge, and, like, microbrews. You know what, I'm vegan, I'm into women's rights, veganism, microbrews. . .
KURT: Hamburgers!
KIM: Grungy guys with, like, super long hair, and, like, sexy big bodies, and, like, pierced faces!
FIZZ: And Alice In Chains!
KURT: That guy in Alice In Chains is like this tall!! (holds his hand about three feet off the ground)
KIM: Which one?
KURT: The singer. Yeah, the singer in Alice In Chains. Isn't he just like this little …
KIM: Troll?
KURT: Yeah, he is like a little troll. I don't know him at all, but.
FIZZ: So, what's your favorite cocktail, Kurt?
KURT: Well, it depends on the circumstances.
FIZZ: Well, say at a garden party?
KURT: At a garden party, probably vodka and lemonade, or something like that. I don't like gin at all. It's like the worst.
