JAKE
STARR
part two
K: Let's talk about Fandango a little bit. How many releases have you
had now?
J: Well, I think I'm up to number 27. There are a few holes in there, stuff
that hasn't been released yet. Number 10 is the Adam West "Hi-Balls Are
Rolling!" 10-inch, which I just sent out this week, so it should be here
probably in March. That got delayed several years because of these Spanish labels,
namely Munster and Bang Records, were gonna release it, and both
ended up dropping the ball after stalling for a year each, which really pissed
me off, so I decided, "You know what? If you want things done right, you
do it yourself," so I'm doing it myself. Originally it was gonna be three
songs, and now it's gonna be six songs. Three originals that were kind of sitting
in the can and then three covers.
Number 11 was gonna to be a live thing. We recorded one of our last shows at
the 9:30 Club but it didn't turn out that great, so we decided not to use it.
So eventually, I'm gonna sit down and go through all the live tapes I have,
I've got ten or eleven shows recorded, and just kinda cull and get the best
20 tracks, put it together and release that.
So
yeah, I've got 27 releases so far, and almost everything is sold out. That's
the cool thing about it. I like to do limited stuff, mainly because I can't
afford to do more, and things sell out, and I'm a record collector, so I kinda
like the collectibility angle. I admit to being record collector scum to some
extent. (Laughs) But y'know, if you're in the know, and you know me, you're
gonna get a record. It's the people who come to me now and are like, "I'll
give you a hundred dollars for an Adam West 'Cough/Cool' single." Well,
where were you back in '93?
K: When you started Fandango, was it intended primarily just to record
the band?
J: The only reason Fandango Records exists is because I wanted to release
the first Adam West 7-inch. And I came up with Fandango Records to release that
first seven-inch, and then it kinda snowballed from there. It was like, "Hey,
y'know, why can't I have my own label?" It was simply to do that seven-inch,
and it took offfrom there. We did the "Cough/Cool" 7-inch after that,
and then things just started happening. Idecided, "I don't need to only
release Adam West stuff." And it's just turned into something great.
K: You've done some great split singles with Adam West: the Hellacopters,
the Powder Monkeys, the Bellrays...
J: Yeah! I'm really proud of it. I don't release dud records. I get demos all
the time, and I could release a lot more records, but I wanna keep the quality
up. People appreciate that, too. I've got a guy in Germany, his name is Jens
Hermann, and when Adam West was touring Europe, at the show in Cologne, he came
up to the merch table and said, "I want ten of everything." He bought
ten of everything...every 7-inch, every CD, shirt, whatever. And then he orders
stuff from me all the time. He's like the ultimate Fandango collector.
K: You have a pretty extensive discography for a band that's been around,
what, not quite ten years? How did some of those things you didn't release come
about?
J: The first release officially was the "I Get a Sensation" 7-inch;
that came out in June '93. Before that, we have a three-song demo (the last
three songs on "Five the Hard Way"). "Five the Hard Way"
was done as a compilation, 'cos I wanted to get some stuff down, three or four
sessions with the original Adam West, and I wanted to compile them. That was
supposed to be our first CD, and then we broke up. So I put that together, that's
never been officially released.
Then
in '95, when I hooked up with [Johnny] Epiphone, we wrote enough songs, and
we went in to record 10 songs, and that was supposed to be "Mondo Royale."
That took forever, recording, and to this day it's not done yet...there are
lead guitar tracks that haven't been done. It was so frustrating, things weren't
working out, and we just never went back and finished any of that. There were
two covers: one was a cover of the Misfits song "She," and the other
was a cover of "Search and Destroy." "Search and Destroy"
ended up coming out on our second fan club single, "Halloween," and
we re-recorded "She" as a medley with "Halloween." "Beauty"
came out as a split 7-inch with a band called Bubblegum Christ. Then the seven
originals that John and I wrote, no one's ever heard! And it's some good shit,
too. It really isn't bad. Once John got in there and actually laid shit down,
it's alright!
K: You think you'll ever get that out?
J: I'd love to! I need to go in and mix that shit! I haven't heard the stuff
since October or November '95. Haven't heard any of it. I know I wrote some
good stuff. I was really proud of a lot of that, the vocals and stuff I did
on it. It'll be on the Adam West box set in a couple of years! I think with
the release of the "Hi-Balls Are Rolling!" 10-inch, that should be
everything that's in the can, outside of a few covers here and there that are
on compilations which are yet to come out. Everything's been promised; everything
thatwe've recorded is going to be released at some time in the next few months.
I guess the biggest chunk is the Epiphone years...the Epiphone year; it was
only one year. I think that's about it.
K: You guys have done some shows in New York; do you ever think about playing
elsewhere in the States?
J: Well, yeah. We did a little mini-tour. We did Pittsburgh (we like to play
there a lot), then we went up to Cleveland and Detroit. And that was cool, although
we did it in the middle of the summer, in my van that didn't have any air conditioning,
so that sucked. It's difficult for us, 'cos we all have jobs and stuff like
that. We would need some serious tour support to do the States. Europe, on the
other hand...Europe paid for itself and we ended up making money over there,
making a lot of money. And this was unbelieveable, that it's cheaper for us
to play Europe than it is to play the States. I would love to come down to Texas
and I would love to tour the West Coast, but it's not in the immediate future.
K: Have you ever thought about doing a SXSW or a NXNW?
J: We've applied, but we've never been picked. I applied this year with some
of the new stuff, but I almost think that it's fixed by the record companies.
K:
Kinda goes against the spirit of the thing.
J: Yeah. We've never been picked to play CMJ, either.
K: It's fucked.
J: Yeah. You don't need Smashing Pumpkins to play CMJ! You don't need Soundgarden!
It's ridiculous. It's supposed to be an opportunity for people to hear new stuff,
not like the tried and true.
K: How does the music biz in general seem to you? Does it seem like it's
becoming more conservative again?
J: I dunno. You see a band like Monster Magnet do really well with their last
album "Power Trip" on A&M Records (major label.) I'm thinking,
"Wow, Monster Magnet's doing well, Nashville Pussy got signed to a major
label. Things are happening, rock'n'roll's coming back." And then you hear,
well, apparently A&M didn't think Monster Magnet did well enough on their
last, so they're not even going to release their new record here in America.
They just don't want to bother with it. What the fuck's up with that? A band
like Nashville Pussy pretty much went into obscurity. No one did anything with
them. The last album didn't go anywhere. Rocket From the Crypt gets dropped
from Interscope. All these bands that I felt, "Wow, if they're doing well,
there's a good chance for me."
And sure enough, look at some piece of shit like the Grammies or the MTV Music
Awards, the same shit over and over again. The same boy bands, the same two
blonde bitches (Britney and Christina) and all that crap. Where the hell's the
rock'n'roll? And this is what's even worse...I'd rather have all boy bands than
have what the American record companies think rock'n'roll is, namely Limp Bizkit
and Korn and all the copycat bands with the blue dreaded hair and the fuckin'
nose rings and the baggy pants. It's unbelieveable! I'd rather have a hundred
N'Syncs than one Korn. I would! Because with those guys, at least it's like
"Yeah, we know we suck, but we're gettin' money, gettin' chicks,"
whatever. These guys in Korn and Limp Bizkit think they're the shit. They think
that that's what rock'n'roll is. Kid Rock...I heard from a friend of mine, he
met Kid Rock, and Kid Rock said something like, "All I listen to is MC5,
Stooges, Sonic's Rendezvous Band." Really? You wouldn't know from the fuckin'
crap he writes. It makes me sick.
K: It seems like for real rock'n'roll, indie is the way to go, but there,
too, it seems like things are tightening up.
J: Oh, yeah. It's weird. I think there are a lot of great bands out there. All
of us are becoming friends and getting in touch through the web with really
cool bands. I don't know I really don't know. You know that band, Sugar Ray...have
you ever heard their first album they put out, called "Lemonade and Brownies?"
You won't believe that record...that record is kind of like a really good punk
rock record mixed with maybe a little bit of Beastie Boys, but nothing like
you've heard on the radio. I really, really like that record. They were kinda
like Motor City rock mixed with maybe a little bit of Beastie Boys stuff, not
rapping, but scratching, maybe a little sampling. It was just such a great record,
and they were going to get dropped, and their record company said, "We
don't wanna hear this. We wanna hear crap." And the next song they wrote
was that "I Just Wanna Fly," which is one of the biggest pieces of
shit I've heard in the last 10 years.
And that made them millionaires! Even if a rock band gets up there, there's
no guarantee they're gonna stay. If they wanna maintain a career, the record
company is gonna have to bend them over and have their way with them.
K: How do you see the audiences, people who buy records and go to shows?
Is that changing?
J: I don't know. It's almost like we know all the cool people in the world!
I'm not expecting sorority girls to read about Adam West and come see us. It's
weird like that. I was surprised in Europe with the kind of response we got.
We were treated like royalty. We were treated like, "Oh my god, we've been
listening to you guys for years and you finally made it," that kind of
thing. Whereas we go up to New York and we get 40-50 people to come out rockin',
but it's not the same. It's a very weird country. Very big. Record
companies kinda have a stranglehold on what people are gonna hear, and most
people are sheep, and they're gonna take it. They're gonna take what they're
spoon-fed by MTV and radio and stuff like that. They don't know any better.
K: What music are you listening to these days?
J: Well, I actually have the new Monster Magnet record, which I had to get a
friend of mine in England to send me, 'cos it's not available here. I just got
four new Gluecifer songs which they just recorded, which are awesome. I listen
to some of the "Fistful of Rock'n'roll" series, I think they're up
to Volume 6. I still listen to older stuff, I still put on "Funhouse"
by the Stooges, or "Sweet Nothing," Sonic's Rendezvous Band, the live
one. I'm still fully versed in that stuff. I love the Hives, almost all the
Scandinavian bands, Flaming Sideburns I adore. Mooney Suzuki I adore. That's
the stuff.
K: In terms of Adam West plans for this year, what have you got on the cards?
J: We're going back to Europe in September, and we literally have a shitload
of records coming out in the next six months. There's like three seven-inchers
coming out this month, I think.
K: Are you doing those yourself or is somebody else putting them out?
J: Oh no, this time it's other people, which is great. I'm doing the 10-inch,
then "Piece of Ass" is coming out, the Rickshaw split with [Adam West's
cover of] "Asteroid B-612" is coming out, the Flamin' Groovies tribute
is finally coming out [Adam West cover "Dog Meat"].
K: Since we're in a Bar, what do you like to drink.
J: What do I like to drink? I'm a vodka tonic man. There's a song from our first
record called "Vodka Tonic Blues." And it's written about my liver.
You can quote me on that one!
K: This one goes out to Jake's liver.
J: Hell yeah!
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