DEEP BLUES: iLLiNOiS JOHN FEVER

RS:: Based mostly in your lyrics and supply I used to be questioning if maybe you had been in Iowa for its famend writing program. It is wonderful what number of notable authors have come out of that scene. Your songs appear very character pushed,  like rural, poetic brief tales.

SPG: That’s not how we began out, however that’s the place we’ve gotten to, or perhaps again to. Earlier than IJF, each my fiction and music festered and frothed with which means, with very-important-shit, and I wanted to interrupt that off to go on residing in the true world. When IJF began, we went for supply over which means, for spirit over substance, perhaps, and with numerous arduous to catch hollering. I took my early cues from Royal Trux, most probably. We needed to sound uncooked and frantic, just like the music performed when a truck crashes off the freeway. Music for knife-fighting, or driveway fires. However we’ve grown loads: The characters are all people pushed to principally arduous ends, and their tales are informed in order to hold the burden for the supply if that is sensible.

RS:: Living proof, your tune Champ Jackie.

SPG:: I’d written a brief story a couple of boxer whose life’s glory was having beat Champ Jackie within the ring. The title got here out of the air and drew me in, making me involved in his story, the champ who was certain he might beat anyone, and misplaced. And whereas I didn’t base the tune on anybody specifically, I’ve seen camps just like the one he’s residing in after jail. This was again after I was driving a cab. And I imply it prefer it sounds, only a bizarre pop-up of tents on a dead-end highway and populated with drunks and different folks with no place to go.

RS:: I hate to even spoil it however inform me in regards to the opening line, which is you shouting a capella, Deliver The Ghost Residence Now!

SPG:: Oh that — haha, that is Bobber’s solely line in our total catalog. It was one thing he’d holler whereas we wrote the tune, and it caught. Like an incantation for calling the lifeless.

RS:: It is nice. It suits the album so properly, and makes one cognizant of the very fact this ain’t no outdated timey potpourri nation blues no matter. You do deliver the ghost residence…I do not know what it is a ghost of however…

SPG:: I’ve pressed Bob on this and we each agree he is hollering up the ghost of Champ Jackie. However we additionally agree that the ‘ghost’ was at all times greater than that, and that hollering it up is a part of our ritual, and that mentioning the ghost is on the coronary heart of our mission.

RS:: Let’s speak influences.
The good Dale Beavers in contrast the album to Exile on Major Avenue? Are the ‘Stones excessive within the playlist?

BH:: (Bobber Corridor) – The Stones are imprinted in our DNA since early childhood, by no means actually listened to them deliberately myself. I feel Sean and I had been each most affected by early 80’s to mid 90’s punk rock, post-punk, and psychedelic. Sean?  My youth affect playlist in all probability seems like The Ramones, Useless Kennedys, Black Flag, Pleasure Division, Bauhaus, Hendrix, Worry, Intercourse Pistols, Warsaw (extra to come back, want espresso 😉 )

SPG:: I’ll draw from any properly that may quench a thirst, and I go to the Stones loads. Particularly their early 70s materials. I like something soiled and peculiar and harmful. Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, for instance, which turned me onto Pink Anderson, not coincidentally. DK can also be in my record of punk favorites however I like Large Black, Circle Jerks, Bare Raygun, ST. Generally I admit I nonetheless hearken to the Exploited. Rising up in Chicago, I used to be fortunate to hold round WaxTrax and Medusa’s so obtained sucked in by industrial and techno. Of notice, that droning, noisy, psychedelic machine-driven stuff is probably going what later drew me to Fred McDowell’s type.

RS:: Do you hear a connection between them, industrial and Fred?

SPG:: I hesitate to attract any direct join between them. I imply, from intent to instrumentation the genres are far aside. That mentioned, I do suppose there’s a kinetic vitality between the 2. And I am certain outdated purist farts from both sideline will name me a vacationer for saying this, however right here goes: 

Take “Headhunter” by Entrance 242, which makes use of blended time signatures. The knifing bass line sticks to 4/4 and contrasts with an atmospheric twinkle dotting out an extended rhythm on high. On the refrain a deeper bass line drops in at 8/4 with lyrics additionally delivered in numerous time signatures. The temper is intense, the tune is a couple of man who captures different folks and sells them, however the beat does not wish to kill you. And it compliments but refuses to match the bass riff, none of that dmp-dmp-dmp-dmp. (Is that the way you spell “EDM?”) 

Now take Fred McDowell’s “Shake ’em on Down.” Particularly the ’64 model performed with Johnny Woods, and recorded by Chris Strachwitz. Our pal Dusty Busch claims the best songs performed by no means get recorded, however this is one which obtained caught. The fucker simply hops like a spring-loaded machine. Fred nails the 1-2 bass line whereas working that slide, his shukka-shukka, and he is muting a bunch of notes that get expressed extra like components of rhythm. 

In the meantime, Johnny’s harmonica tone fantastically meshes with the jangle of the guitar. The rhythm pushes and drags, form of shoving round however at a clip. They only sling it backwards and forwards like they’re on a wire all day, and by no means thoughts for what number of measures. 

What appeals to me about each songs is that they use complimentary and contrasting rhythms from which the tune emerges as one thing alive, like a confluence of rivers. So whereas I do not categorically suppose the genres of Hill Nation blues and Industrial dance have a lot to do with one another, I do discover them interesting for related causes. And producing that very same confluence of rhythm and tone is one thing I feel we have been chasing for so long as I can bear in mind.

RS:: How’d you guys get began taking part in, each collectively, and personally?  Was there one thing or somebody that locked it into place for you?

SPG:: I picked up guitar 25 years in the past, identical 12 months I moved to Iowa. I assumed it was a great way to woo the women. So for some time I pushed out quite a lot of emo-driven, cafe-styled acoustic songster stuff, however quickly as I put a band collectively we had been rocking “Cautious with that Axe, Eugene.” This scared the shit of my small circle of followers, and finally turned the route I’ve headed.

Ten years later, I met Bobber whereas driving cab. We’ve at all times been on the identical religious wavelength, regardless of our variations in persona. There’s extra to the story although suffice to say all good marriages begin in friendship, not fucking because it had been. I knew he performed drums however we wouldn’t jam till 2006. And I wouldn’t be taught till six months later that he was the primary (and final) drummer for the Iowa Beef Expertise. On a private notice, I used to be listening to IBE at 15 years outdated, and I abruptly realized I’d been taking part in with one in all my heroes.

RS:: How do you write your songs? Does Sean herald accomplished songs, or is it extra of an natural staff effort, or D. The entire above?

SPG: It’s about 50/50: I’ll write some songs head-to-toe. Different tunes are a mixture, the place I‘ll work up a riff and a few modifications, after which we prepare collectively, which I choose. I steer away from the James Brown college and simply let anyone play no matter they wish to play, as long as it sounds proper for the tune.

RS:: Inform me in regards to the band title. Is it a riff on WKRP’s Johnny Fever…or…?

SPG: Our title was impressed by Fred McDowell telling how he was born in Tennessee however everyone calls him ‘Mississippi.’ I’m from Chicago, so there’s a few of it. Nevertheless it’s the dissonance that clicks for me. Sort of like how we’re white punks taking part in historically pre-electric black music. And music that historically marketed the talent of its artist on the idea of his wellsprings. Plus, you ever heard of Iowa John Fever? Me neither.

RS:: I am coming over to your own home tomorrow. You’ve got obtained a five-disc cd participant. What music will we hearken to? Additionally, I might prefer to borrow 3-4 books. What do you suggest?

SPG: Georgia Blues Immediately; John Jackson’s “Blues and Nation Dance Tunes from Virginia”; T-Mannequin’s “Pee-Wee Get My Gun;” this Joseph Spence combine tape I put collectively; Pussy Galore’s full cowl of “Exile on Major Avenue.” 

And since that final document is pretty unlistenable, we will go for any associated Royal Trux information. (For books) “Manhattan Switch,” John Dos Passos; “Play It As It Lays,” Joan Didion; “The Freelance Pallbearers,” Ishmael Reed; “Cotton Involves Harlem,” Chester Himes; “Candide,” Voltaire.

RS:: What is The Museum of Jurassic Expertise? 

SPG:: MJT is an artwork set up out in Century Metropolis, CA. Amongst it’s fascinating reveals is a miniature cell residence gallery and a complete wing devoted to Athanasius Kircher, which incorporates a bell wheel that produces essentially the most unbelievable pure sound I’ve ever heard.

RS:: How’s the music scene in Iowa? Anyone good we must always find out about?
SPG:: Iowa Metropolis has at all times had a burgeoning music scene. Try Closet Witch, Acoustic Guillotine, Center Western.

RS:: Y’all play The Deep Blues Competition, America’s premier fest for punk-infected and alt-blues in Clarksdale, Mississippi this weekend.

SPG:: 

We play Friday, October twelfth at 11am at Cathead and Saturday, October thirteenth at 2pm on the Rock and Blues Museum.

Thanks, guys!