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Sympathy for the Spaceshits >> Those rascally rock 'n' rollers return by RUPERT BOTTENBERG
Mirror: So, Blacksnake, I hear that in Calgary, you got your ass kicked by a girl. Blacksnake (bassist): That was in Detroit. M: What's the story with that? Skid Marks (drummer): He didn't get his ass kicked. BS: I didn't. It was like, uh, rough flirting. Fantastic Mr. Fox (lead guitar): It was tough love. Creepy (vocal stylist): The girl was supposedly feeling him off, but really she was giving him the beats. BS: Well, I didn't get hurt, I was laughing and shit. SM: This was in the alley next to the club. FMF: It's a tough town, Detroit. SM: Where a guy got raped by four bums, not long ago. FMF: Pistol-whipped, and then dragged into a squat, and he woke up raped. BS: We played with this rock 'n' roll band called the Gore Gore Girls, who were, uh... FMF: Two girls and one hippie dude, who played drums. BS: I guess they were big fans of the band, because to get on the bill, one of the girls jumped on the promoter and started humping his back. And so we're kind of ragging each other on stage... FMF: Between every song. Blacksnake made a comment about the Gore Gore Girls between every song... BS: Well, they were making comments about me, like how they wanted to see all of the Blacksnake. So we exchanged some words, and finally we ended up in the alley, and she jumped me and pounded my ass. M: I have it on good authority that your stay in Vancouver was an absolute disaster. The place where you were staying was a filthy sty, an abomination in the eyes of God... BS: Well, it was a barn, so you can't expect too much. It was the Spaceshits barn, with like animals and shit... SM: We slept in the van, cooked on the radiator... C: No, the place where we stayed was just a squat. M: Was it really that filthy? C: Well, if my mom saw it she wouldn't be happy. SM: We didn't have beds or anything. BS: We slept on each other. With a few girls in between. Like a Spaceshits sandwich. FMF: That's the title of our next album. M: Yeah, I hear you recorded a new album, in its entirety. BS: Yeah, we recorded it in San Francisco, home of the sausage factory and the Hot and Hunky Hamburger. We recorded in the heart of the Castro district... C: I thought the last album was disgusting, production-wise. This one's good. We recorded it on a six-track. Greg Lowry from the Rip Offs and Supercharger produced it. It's got a raw, live sound... M: How was the West Coast scene? C: I don't know, Calgary was cool. We played the Rock 'n' Roll Boat and Trailer Show. The highlight, for me, was Jeff Connely from the Lyres and Mono Men... M: I heard he got really fat... C: Yeah, he's old. BS: And he dances around, like a little girl. C: He's an acid casualty. FMF: He was gonna drop acid... we got in trouble from the other bands for supposedly forcing the Mono Men to do acid. But it's not true. He asked us for some, but only an eighth of a hit, or else he had to go back to the mental hospital. He said he wants to take the photo for his next album in a room full of Happy Meal toys. FMF: The Hollywood scene's pretty big. M: Isn't it all like glam metal and shit? BS: More like porn. All the porno stars are into the rock 'n' roll scene. It's like silicone valley down there. SM: All the porn stars, like Jenna Jameson, all the big names are either at punk shows or lounge nights. FMF: The editor of Leg World Magazine is a big fan of ours. We toured the Hustler building with him. He gave us a big box full of porn. We didn't get to meet Larry Flynt, though. BS: At this one show, we shared a dressing room with a bunch of wrestlers, because it was a rock 'n' roll wrestling event. Johnny Legend put it on, and he had these crazy wrestlers, like the HIV Kid... SM: But it was like real wrestling... FMF: It's this series of shows that he does. Incredibly Strange Rock 'n' Roll Wrestling, he gets some cool bands and these, I don't know, underground wrestlers... M: You guys hung out with (Spaceshits' record label) Sympathy's Long Gone John... BS: Yeah, in his casa. Casa of magic. This enormous Spanish mansion with like secret rooms everywhere, original Robert Williams paintings... M: And a voodoo chair, you told me? BS: A hoodoo chair. He bought this throne, this skull throne... M: I guess California was pretty wacky... FMF: Yeah, we also ran into Klaus Flouride from the Dead Kennedys and Dez Cadena from Black Flag. M: What did they have to say for themselves? FMF: Cadena's a hippie. SM: He has these huge acid parties in his basement. Acid orgies. FMF: Jello Biafra was supposed to come hang out, but he had to go lift weights. M: Going the Rollins route. FMF: We recorded with Kearney Barton, who recorded the Sonics and the original "Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen. He bakes cookies now. For yachtsmen. I think he does acid. I called him on the phone, and said, "Hi, this is Fantastic Mr. Fox from the Spaceshits." He was totally silent. I go, "Spaceshits... ring a bell?" and he goes, "Ding-dong." M: What do you guys think you learned from this whole experience? BS: I learned how to light my farts on fire. SM: That Canada's a great place? FMF: The meaning of love. The Spaceshits play Le Petit Campus (57 Prince Arthur E.) tonight, Jan. 29, with The Daylight Lovers. 9pm, $5
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After six months on the West Coast, local punk rockers the Spaceshits are back where their hearts (and parents' fridges) are. Let's see what they have to show for their troubles.