Detroit skronk city

Frustrations keep up the Motor City tradition of bridging the punk rock and noise scenes

SNOT AND SWAGGER: Frustrations

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Detroit has always been the perfect breeding ground for mixing the swagger and snottiness of raw rock ‘n’ roll with the cacophony of its industrial surroundings—just dig all the way back to the Stooges’ 1970 “L.A. Blues” for a shining example. From the garage punk of The Gories to the hardcore of Negative Approach, and on to current bands like Tyvek with their early-’80s UK punk sound, the city has had a rich musical pedigree and an unmistakable attitude. Throw in fellow Michigan noise merchants Wolf Eyes and their exploding scene, and you have the makings of some killer punk rock.

Frustrations, and their fellow labelmates on X! Records, are perhaps the epitome of this new generation of noisy punks, delivering straight-up punk rock vitriol with teeth-gnashing noise. The Mirror talked to drummer/vocalist Scott Dunkerley over the phone from a tour stop in South Carolina.

Mirror: You’ve been running the X! label for a while now, with releases by Michael Yonkers, Tyvek, The Mahonies, Terrible Twos, Fontana and others. How did it start?

Scott Dunkerley: Well, I work in a record store, so I guess that was sort of an influence, but mainly it was just that all of these great Detroit bands were playing around for a couple of years and still hadn’t released anything. So I just thought it made sense to put all of these bands under one roof and start promoting them. It takes up all of my spare time, but I still find it really rewarding.

M: Is there a common thread to the bands you release, or a sound that typifies them?

SD: I can’t say that The Terrible Twos and somebody like Tyvek sound the same, but I think generally they’re punk rock bands that are doing something a bit different from what most people think punk is. Bands on the label tend to be a bit more straight-up, though, and don’t really get into that psychedelic thing. The bands are all different, but when we all play together it works out fine, so I guess that could be the thread.

M: It seems that Detroit has always had a close-knit scene, with a lot of bands helping each other out.

SD: I think the music scene in Detroit is really healthy right now. There’s just so many good bands there that there’s a certain energy happening. They’re all musically doing different things, but they’re always interesting. There’s a really good noise scene happening with Wolf Eyes, Cotton Museum and Sick Llama, and a bunch of other noise stuff that’s really making it out of Detroit. I think that the noise scene has definitely played an influence on the punk rock scene because a lot of local bills have punk rock bands and noise bands playing together.

A lot of the more rock bands have an urge to do something different and can’t help but be influenced by noise bands, just because that scene is always around them, while some noise people who just want to rock bring their influences with them. I guess Frustrations kind of fits into that picture.