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Parental advisory >>
Talkin’ family values with Grand Buffet’s Lord Grunge
Mirror:
I noticed that Grape-a-Don’s dad does a little cameo on the tune
“You’re on Fire.” That’s very supportive of him. Lord Grunge:
Well, Grape-a-Don’s dad is Grape-a-Don’s dad, so he can
bring a lot to the table, creatively. I really wanted him on the album
because we’ve thus far steered clear of guest spots, which are
kinda overdone in hip hop, even fringe hip hop like us. We wanted to
choose our guests carefully. M: What
about your dad? Why isn’t he on there? LG: My dad’s
a cool dude, and supportive, for sure—I still live with my parents,
actually, which you can feel free to leave out of the article—so
it’s very possible that he’ll make an appearance eventually.
I thought, having both our dads on there would be a little too gimmicky. M: That
leads me to my next question—in a fight, whose dad would win? LG: Wow.
My dad is a hard rock, but more the corporate ballbuster, a hard rock
in the boardroom. Grape-a-Don’s dad has a military background,
did the Peace Corps, so he’d probably get the upper hand, physically.
But it works out, because I could fold Grape-a-Don. M: That’s
naturally where I’d like to go with this. Considering that you’re
larger and more girthful than he is, do you ever feel pressed to protect
little Grape-a-Don? Or conversely, to use your weight to bully him into
place? LG: These
are seriously dope questions. First thing is, Grape-a-Don is actually
very powerful. He does not look it, but in high school, he’d smoke
me at arm wrestling every time. It’s that Irish thing, he’s
wiry and powerful. So I took it upon myself to jack some iron and gain
a little strength, more appropriate to my size. We did have an incident
in York, Pennsylvania, where a dude attacked Grape-a-Don mid-set. After
the fact, there was all this ambiguity surrounding it, whether it was
a real attack at all or just a joke, but I perceived it as such. That
was a first for us, but I did show and prove, and put the hurt on him.
Not Grape-a-Don. The dude. M: Now,
on a less menacing note, I hear you guys are doing a kids’ album. LG: We’re very, very excited about it. It’s been a long time in the making, and we hope it’ll be big. The one song we’ve been teasing everyone with is “Let’s Go Find the Cat.” You can’t buy it, but it’s on the Internet and it’s become a bit of a cult classic. So yeah, it’ll be a bona fide children’s album, no sexual innuendo or bogus crap like that. It’s a genual—genual? Jesus!—genuine album for people of all ages. With Grand Buffet, we incorporate a lot of questionable subject matter and vulgarity, and that’s cool, but not for younger people. Our goal is to make something that’s clean and good for kids, but at the same time, poppy, dancey and accessible. Tentatively, it should be out in the fall. : With Bluebird,
Cex, Ghislaine Poirier and Khyro at Jupiter Room on Saturday, May 25,
9pm, $7
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They’re
tight with Wesley Willis and the Anticon crew. They give mad props to
Skeletor, Freddy Krueger and the California Raisins. Their CD Sparkle
Classic—which does! And is!—is as defiantly DIY as a homemade
pipe bomb, and live, their dynamic dance moves are the bomb. Pittsburgh’s
kings of suburban lo-fi jackass rap, the mighty Lord Grunge and his
copper-topped cohort Grape-a-Don are Grand Buffet. Hope you have an
appetite.