This Sat, LSJ play with SoniChris & Maui of The Aquasonics from SG101 in Grand Junction Colorado. That will be a great show.

bigtikidude

HBkahuna
This Sat, LSJ play with SoniChris & Maui of The Aquasonics from SG101 in Grand Junction Colorado. That will be a great show.

you going HB?

Jeff(bigtikidude)

u a seat

Oh sure. I'll save you a seat on my Gulfstream jet.

http://www.morphizm.com/recommends/angelint.html

"I'm Not a Fan of Boring or Ugly": An Interview With Eddie Angel of Los Straitjackets

Scott Thill

If you've never seen Los Straitjackets live, then you've missed a good time by a mile and a half. The El Santo masters of surf guitar got more stage choreography than the Backstreet Boys, better chops, and more "A Huevo," you might say. We caught up with co-chopmaster Eddie Angel, a man who likes to keep his mask on, as Los Straitjackets prepared for an All-Star gig at the fabled Mint in Hollywood. He poured forth on the Straitjackets new release, Sing Along With Los Straitjackets, punk music, and not being starstruck as musical legends jumped on the band's mikes in the studio. Enjoy.

Scott Thill: How did this collaboration come together?
Eddie Angel: We just try to different things each time we make a record. We had recorded a 45 with Big Sandy singing a couple of rock n' roll songs in Spanish about four or five years ago and we knew we wanted to do something like that. And we had a couple of friends and knew people in the music business that thought it would be a good idea so we ran with it. It was pretty cool -- no one really said, "No." We had some people that we tried to get on it -- like Nancy Sinatra and Brian Wilson -- who didn't say no, but were just worked out. Joey Ramone was going to do something on it, but he was too sick, you know?

We had met Mike Campbell touring around six or seven years ago. We were both in Atlanta -- he was playing with Tom Petty -- and he came down to our gigs and really dug the band. We became friends and kept in touch with him. In fact, we recorded the 45 with Big Sandy at his house, and we also opened shows at the Filmore and Irvine for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Dave Alvin we already knew, since we share the same booking agent. So it just really came together over the period of about year. It was really a lot of fun.

ST: How did the choice of songs come about?
Eddie Angel: Every case was kind of separate. Sometimes, someone came to us with a song they wanted and sometime we had the idea for the song. Sometimes the producer had the idea and sometimes we'd boil it down to three songs and pick one of those. It was a case-by-case thing. Mike Campbell wanted to do "Bumble Bee"; that was his idea. We felt that the "End of the World" was a good song for a girl to sing and Leigh Nash turned out to be perfect. In another universe, that would probably be a hit song.

We all liked the record. Usually, when you get done making one, you're sick of it and you can't stand to listen to it anymore. But this one we still really like listening to, and playing it, too. We've been touring with Big Sandy, so we come and play a set and then we do a set backing him up, which has been a lot of fun. It makes for a good show.

ST: You've played with Big Sandy a lot. Are you guys thinking about putting together a supergroup?
Eddie Angel: (Laughs) Oh yeah, he's pretty cool! I think we really stumbled onto something playing with him and I hope we can do more of it in the future. We'd really like to go to Europe with him; I think we would floor them over there.

ST: During certain stops on your tour, are any of the guest vocalists going to sit in?
Eddie Angel: Yeah. Mike Campbell is definitely sitting in, Dave Alvin is coming by -- he might sit in -- and Exene's coming by.

ST: Are they going to wear masks?
Eddie Angel: (Laughs) That would be pretty funny! It can get hot if there are lights on you. It can get pretty uncomfortable.

ST: Is there a track that stands out not necessarily as a band favorite, but maybe something that you really had fun putting together?
Eddie Angel: It was pretty fun doing "A Huevo" with the Trashmen. We recorded that song in a garage in Minneapolis, which is very appropriate if you're familiar with the Trashmen. We did it in one-four hour session in a studio inside a guy's garage; it was pretty low-tech, but it was a lot of fun. The song we did with Mark Lindsay, "Treat Her Right", was fun, too. He sang it the same time as we played it and I kept having to pinch myself, thinking, "Wow, that voice. That's the voice I used to hear on the radio and here he is. We're playing in the studio with him."

ST: Did you ever get star-struck while you were recording?
Eddie Angel: That didn't really happen too much because we already had some kind of connection with all of them. But we were totally flattered that they even wanted to be a part of it. I think that everyone on it has a unique kind of charisma that really comes across.

ST: Four of the songs are sung in Spanish. Combining that with the fact that you guys are big El Santo fans and wear the wrestling masks, were you trying to put together a twist on these standards or was it more of a spontaneous thing?
Eddie Angel: We didn't put as much thought into it as you think we might have. We really like Mexican rock n' roll and some of these songs are much cooler sung in Spanish nowadays. If Big Sandy had sung "Tallahassee Lassie" in English, it wouldn't have had the same cache going for it, you know? But in Spanish it's much more unique and timeless; it doesn't sound like just another song on oldies radio. We'd like to do a whole record like that, cool rock n' roll songs in Spanish.

It's only rock n' roll but he likes it. Eddie gets straitjacketed in a cave performance near Burgos, Spain. (Photo credit: Kike Louie, Straitjackets.com)

I think the thinking is that people like rock n' roll -- and when I say rock n' roll I'm talking about early rock n' roll as opposed to rock music, which I define as music before Sgt. Pepper's -- but they're told somehow that it's not really hip to like it, that it's too Fonzi and Happy Days. Instead, they go for more serious stuff. So here it's been somewhat more disguised to the point that it's maybe more appealing to them; it's still got the good energy and the good beat, but they're not hearing the lyrics to "Tallahassee Lassie", which they might find corny. I personally don't -- my favorite record in the world is "Surfin' Bird". I'm not a fan of serious lyrics in songs, so the way to get around that is to sing them in Spanish. (He laughs). I guess that's it in a nutshell! It's fun to see the languages that rock n' roll works in.

ST: There's so much interesting instrumental music going around. Do you think there is something in lyrics that, like you said, is too serious? To the point where you miss kicking back and just enjoying the groove?
Eddie Angel: Well, I definitely think that rock music is way too serious. It bores me to death. It does. I can't really think of anything I hear that I like anymore; it's either boring or ugly, and I'm not a fan of boring or ugly. That's seems to be what's out there, in general. But we're just trying to do stuff we like. We have an underlying philosophy: rock n' roll is supposed to be about fun. And I think other bands had that in the past -- the Ramones had it -- but it always kind of gets lost, buried beneath the pretentiousness.

I think that people are fed a line in most rock journalism that says music is supposed to be serious stuff. And I'm not saying it shouldn't be -- in one sense, rock n' roll is totally serious to me. I've dedicated my life to it. But it's not meant to be taken so seriously -- it's supposed to be fun and light-hearted. It's supposed to be an anecdote to the serious stuff. It's like going to watch a science fiction movie as opposed to a Fellini movie. We want to be fun and entertaining and that's the long and short of it.

Support Morphizm -- Pick up Los Straitjackets CDs at Djangos!

Good rock n' roll shares an element with punk music. I think Link Wray and early Elvis were punk rock, you know? Elvis coming out and doing "Hound Dog." It shares a certain kind of anarchic attitude, I guess. But the thing I don't like about punk music is when it gets political. Then it becomes a bore. I like punk music like the Ramones. You always have to keep that sensibility that this is supposed to be about fun. As soon as you lose that, I'm personally uninterested. Because I don't think anyone in a rock n' roll band has anything to say to me. I want them to sing about "Surfin' Bird" to me.

ST: Ok, I have to ask it. Which one of you is the best wrestler?
Eddie Angel: (Laughs) I would probably guess our drummer, Jimmy. He's the one with the worst temper.

ST: Dirtiest fighter?
Eddie Angel: That would be him again, I think.

ST: Do you guys have any ring names?
Eddie Angel: Pete is Pedro Del Mar. Our drummer, Jimmy, calls himself Lord Chevron. Danny is Daddy O'Grande. Eddie Angel is all they call me.