| Dave
Nobody Interviews David Yow from Scratch Acid...and Vice Versa
 DY:
So you’re working for Rank
and Revue now?
DN:
Yeah, they’ve been after me
for a while.
DY: When did you move back to
Austin?
DN:
I moved back to Austin a year
ago February.
DY: Oh my fucking god! So you
were in the Austin/Houston scene like at the very, very beginning
of punk rock!
DN: Yeah well I started out when
I was like 12 or 13. I started sneaking out at night and going downtown
to the Island because I had found punk rock or heard about punk
rock, and then I heard there was a bar downtown. I would literally
skateboard 5 miles to catch a bus to get downtown and then I’d skate
down to the Island and often end up sleeping upon the stage there.
So then I started running away to Austin. I went to a show and there
was a band called The Other Guys which featured Terri Laird (Texas
Terri). And I had tricked 2 of the seniors, I had just started highschool,
I’d been there a week, when I met 2 new wave seniors. I started
talking them into driving down to the Island and we went down there
and we saw Terri. It was before Terri had breasts. So uh…
DY: Ohhhhh…
DN:
Yeah, back then. anyway, I
was the only one up front while they were playing and my friends
started teasing me “You know that’s a guy” and I said “No, that’s
a girl”. Anyway after the show she came up –I was cute and
adorable- and was hugging me and everything and told me that if
I ever came up to Austin that I could stay with her. So of course
the very next weekend I convinced these guys to drive to Austin.
We stopped at a flea market and I got an ID that said I was 18,
which tells you how long ago that was, and the 1st place we went to was Raul’s. We went in, I flashed
my ID, it was no problem and it happened to be the weekend of the
recording of the the Dicks/Big Boys LIVE AT RAUL’S…
DY: Ahhhh...
DN: Very happy coincidence
there. And I spent the-uh, stayed with Terri that weekend, and that’s
when my love affair with Austin began. Very shortly after that I
was basically living in Austin.
DY: Yeah but then minutes later
you moved to Seattle.
DN: Yeah well in 80’.
DY: Although at the time it didn’t
seem like it. At the time it probably seemed like an eon.
DN: At the time it seemed like
an eternity. I consider those my Tom Sawyer punk rock days cause
I was basically homeless, hanging out with Pat Black or Rob Buford,
skateboarding around town between keg parties and fighting with
frat boys. But it seemed like a very short period of time now but
then it seemed like an eternity.Yeah because I was with my
lovely girlfriend Lisa. We lived on 31st and Speedway which later
became a pretty notorious famous house. We turned it over to Tommy
and Roger, who turned it into hardcore central. Anyways, her parents
decided she was going to go to Cornish in Seattle and they were
going to pay for it. So I just went along. I auditioned for Cornish
just for fun, having never gone to high school but for a month and
received full scholarships. So her folks were so happy about this
they actually bought a house for us to live in which became the
notorious Blane St. house where bands broke up, formed, died...people
died. It was featured in the movie Hype, the very famous
sea house. So we moved there in 83’ and I went to Cornish about
a year and a half before I got back in bands. I actually had an
art show in Cornish that got so much press that I was offered the
main spot at an international underground artist show. At that point
I was like “Why am I going to school when I’m showing?”...which
is always my excuse. But it pretty much started with the U-Men and
bringing them to Austin for Woodshock which kind of ended my Cornish
career and got me back on the road and into rock-n-roll, well punk
rock, which saves my life every time.
DY:
Nice!
DN:
What about you? When did you
move to Chicago?
DY:
May 1st, 1988.
DN:
When did Scratch Acid break
up?
DY:
I think it was the second
half of 87’, sometime in 87’. I’m not sure of the day or the month.
DN:
Was that a peaceful thing?
DY:
Haha. Well I think the actual
finish was we had some troubles on that last tour, specifically
in Minneapolis, where we were playing at the Uptown. Rey and Brett
got in a fight, and I’m not sure how it came to fisti cuffs. People
that were there said they were swinging at each other but I don’t
remember that. But that was kind of like the beginning of the end
of the end because it was sort of falling apart before that. But
by the time we got home, that was it.
DN:
And home was still Austin
at that point?
DY:
Yeah.
DN:
So what prompted the move
to Chicago?
DY:
Rey Washam and David Sims
had sort of joined up with Steve Albini, or David went up to Chicago
to see if he was going to play bass in Rapeman with Rey and Steve
Albini. And that worked out well. And I was ready to move so David
and I moved up there. And at that point I was thinking that I would
be Rey’s drum tech and I would go on tour with them, but Albini
goes, “Yeah well, we don’t need a drum tech”. So I got a job in
a restaurant.
DN:
And how long was that? That
you were working in a restaurant and not playing music?
DY:
Ummmm, it wasn’t that long.
It was probably six months or something like that. When Dave and
I were still in Austin, he and Duane Denison and I had sort of fucked
around doing some music with a drum machine, but we gave up on that
when we moved to Chicago. And then we decided that maybe Duane should
come up and we should record those songs that we wrote in Austin,
just for the hell of it, with a drum machine. I think at the time
it was just going to be a project, you know? Something to do. We
didn’t plan on actually forming a band, I don’t think, at the time
to when we actually got Mac and actually started a band. So I think
it was about six months after I moved that we recorded that thing,
the first record.
DN:
Now your turn to ask me a
question.
DY:
In warm weather, how high
can you weewee?
DN:
In warm weather? Well unfortunately
not as high as could say in my early days in Austin when I had a
record amongst my friends for height and distance. I don’t have
that ability as much anymore but I have been working on it. I have
been concentrating on improving my stream and it has been getting
better. Perhaps next time I see you we could have a contest.
DY:
I really don’t do that too
much anymore. I really like to walk and pee and check out that
spirograph pattern that you sort of end up with. When I was younger
I could pee higher than any of my friends.
DN:
Yeah, I was a very strong
pee-er. I used to impress my girlfriend, especially behind Club
Foot. Especially with how fast I could drink a 40 ounce. Oh and
in Alaska peeing was always fun because there was snow.
DN:
So was this reunion tour with
Scratch Acid inspired by All Tomorrow’s Parties?
DY:
Yeah that was the impetus.
Jeff Magnum from Neutral Milk Hotel wanted us to play. So we got
asked about it and thought, okay, and figured it would be too much
trouble to get together and practice and everything for one show
on a dumb little island across the ocean so we decided to do some
U.S. shows as well. But now that’s been postponed.
DN:
Now that you have some U.S.
shows as well, did that start out small, and then get bigger, adding
more and more shows?
DY:
I think it started out about
the same size as it finished, but it might have gotten a little
bit smaller, actually. Because the first show, which was in Atlanta,
which was supposed to be at the Variety Theater, got moved to a
different venue because of a lack of advanced ticket sales. There
just wasn’t enough interest to keep it in the place where it was
originally booked, and it got moved to a smaller place. So instead
of actually getting bigger and bigger it got (whispering) smaller!
DN:
So where are you right now?
DY:
I’m at home.
DN:
So the Austin show is kind
of a side thing of the tour?
DY:
Oh no! It’s a real part of
it!
DN:
Do you have shows after Austin?
DY:
Yeah, I think the shows we
have remaining after Austin are Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, San
Francisco, then Portland and Seattle, then we’re finished.
DN:
What is your relationship
with the people from Rabid Cat at this point?
DY:
Wow. It doesn’t really come
into play. I haven’t talked to Laura in just under a thousand years.
I saw Stacy a few years ago. There’s no more hard feelings anymore
or anything like that and I think they wish us well, and we wish
them well. But I think when we first moved to Chicago that we were
pretty upset with them. But now it’s all cool.
DN:
It’s all water under the bridge.
We’re all old.
DY:
Exactly.
DN:
When was the first time you
were ever pant-less on stage?
DY:
Well, I’ll tell you. Scratch
Acid was playing a show in Seattle at, I don’t remember where…
DN:
Would it have been at the
Central Ballroom with the U-Men? Or it was just the Central, not
Ballroom.
DY:
I think it was the Central,
yes. A friend of mine, like David Duet (aka Nobody), told me they
liked the U-Men, and that we needed to play with them in Seattle
cause they were really big there. And I think we all had a really
hard time believing him – them. And we were like, well why the fuck
would anyone in Seattle care about us, you know? 3,000 miles away.
But we got there to play that show and it was really really well-attended…to
the point where people were actually sitting on the stage because
there was no where else to go.
DN:
Actually, there was no stage
anymore. Or the stage had disappeared and it was just a mountain
of bodies as far as the eye could see.
DY:
Yeah. And we had just started
this one particular song that has really long verses and I was standing
there wearing this really nice double-breasted pin-striped silk
suit and I can’t remember his name, oh yeah, YOU pulled my pants
down and at first I thought I should just sort of deal with it,
and not to panic or react, that I would deal with it at the end
of the verse. And I remember looking over and there were these two
girls giggling and covering their mouths and pointing at my dick
and it was minute, like the head was the size of my dick. So I stretched
it out maybe a half inch. And I was really embarrassed and I remember
telling David Sims about it and he said, oh don’t worry, girls know
that dicks are like accordions.
DN: A grower not a show-er, as
they say.
DY:
Well you know, it depends.
Usually it’s not that bad though. I don’t know if it was the weather
or my nerves…
DN:
Well it was cold out. It was
in the North West. That leads me to, what was your worst, or most
memorable bad moment onstage? And what is your most pleasurable
memory onstage?
DY:
This might change depending
on when you ask me. You might ask me two minutes from now and it
might be different but the first thing that pops in my head was
when the Jesus Lizard was playing in Boise, Idaho in a place that
I think was called the Zoo and there were very very few people there.
And it was an all ages show so all the drunks were in another room,
they weren’t even in the room we were playing in. So the 6 or 7
people that were there a drunk frat boy and a drunk Indian
or maybe he was a drunk Eskimo. Anyways they were heckling us, non-stop.
All but like two people in the audience were heckling us. And I
think it was the only time ever, that I just turned to the guys
and said, do you want to just stop playing? I just didn’t see the
point. There were plenty of times where there wasn’t much of an
audience but we’d still give it our all, but I was just humiliated,
and I thought there was just no point at all in continuing for these
two idiots. But I think we actually did finish that show.
DN:
I can relate to that completely,
when you’re the guy out front taking it all. And your best? Or most
pleasurable? Or funniest?
DY:
I think the funnest was when
Shellac asked me if I wanted to play a show as the Sex Pistols with
them in Chicago for Halloween but being as they’re a 3-piece, I
was supposed to be Johnny Rotten. We rehearsed it, as if it were
a part in a movie, for months and months and researched and watched
films and videos and got my costume together and shit. And it was
an absolute blast. I think that may have been the funnest show I
ever played.
DN:
I hope that was taped.
DY:
Nope, it wasn’t. I’ve seen
one picture from it.
DN:
Of course those are the shows
that no one documents.
DY:
I do have a recording of it
on CD.
DN:
Was your crucifixion documented?
DY:
Oh, at Cabaret Voltaire? I
don’t think so. I know they’re a lot of photographs but I don’t
think it was videotaped.
DN: Well, there’s images burned
in the back of peoples minds I bet. What about psychedelics. Any
psychedelic stage experiences, good or bad?
DY: I never really tripped onstage
in any band I was playing in.I just didn’t think it was a very good
idea. But there was one time in Detroit when the Butthole Surfers
played at the Greystone and I happened to have this antique copper
trumpet with me and I was trippin balls, so they asked me if I wanted
to play trumpet on this song with them. So I did that and it didn’t
work out very well. I don’t think I did my part well at all.
DN:
Unfortunately, I’ve had many
psychedelic experiences onstage and most of them were unknown to
me. Or they were forced upon me, as in I was dosed. But that was
pretty common back in the old Cat Butt days. What do you see in
the future for Scratch Acid right now?
DY:
Well I hope that after the
Seattle show on Dec. 18th...I think and I kind of hope that that will be it. We did a three
show reenactment a few years ago and now we’re doing this. So I
hope that it’s finished when we’re done with this, til we go to
the rescheduled ATP fest in March, which I think is kind of funny
because I think it got postponed due to lack of interest. Which
I can fully understand, not wanting to be on the west coast Atlantic
side of England in December, and I don’t think it’s going to be
that much better in March. Whatever it is, it sounds horrible. And
then that will be the end.
DN:
What are your feelings about
coming back to Austin? Do you still enjoy Austin?
DY:
Oh always. I love that town!
I wouldn’t want to live there again but I love being there.
DN:
Austin loves you too. You
know who else loves you? Seattle.
DY:
Oh yeah, That’s why, when
we did those reunion shows about 5 years ago for the Touch and Go
25th Anniversary, originally we
were just going to play Chicago but then we were like, well we have
to play Austin, we have to play Austin. So we decided to do that
and then it was my suggestion to play Seattle because they’re the
only other town that gives a shit.
DN:
Well Seattle’s always been
appreciative of good, original, dissonant music to produce bands
like the U-Men, Catbutt, and so on and so on. Let’s see, what’s
David Sims really like?
DY: In the last few years, I’ll
tell you, he’s definitely the winner of the most improved David
Sims award cause he and I have always been sort of like, brothers.
And we’ve had difficulties, you know, in the past but for some reason
or another, in the last several years he has become pretty saintly.
He has the patience of fucking Ghandi. He’s really really remarkable
and he’s wonderful to be around. I’m pretty thrilled about it.
DN:
What’s David Nobody really
like?
DY:
He wins the most improved
David Nobody award too. He used to be more of a brat, and now he’s
never a brat. I don’t know, was he ever a brat?
DN:
Oh, he was a brat.
DY: But who wasn’t a brat early
on?
DN:
Yeah, we were all brats. If
you could go back in time and change anything. Anything? What would
it be?
DY:
Wow.
DN:
We could limit this to your
personal situation, you know, not the world.
DY:
I think, regarding my personal
situation, that I would get rid of the bald spot.
DN: Haha. What is the music that
you listen to the most right now? What are you playing the most
right now?
DY:
Right now? That’s funny because
I rarely listen to music. I’ve got my Ipod in my car so when I’m
driving I kind of have a chuckle listening to whatever it wants
to play. Comically enough, it’s usually Scratch Acid, which I used
to never listen to but now…
DN:
You ask me a question.
DY:
If you could change anything,
whether personal or in the world, in the past or in the future,
what would you change?
DN:
There’s a lot of people I
wish were still alive, especially a few people, especially one person.
I would probably change the way…I would’ve treated those people
better. I would have the knowledge then that I have now, which is
ridiculous. I would’ve have treated people better than I did, but
that’s really the only thing that I would change.
DN:
What was your favorite childhood
toy?
DY:
Probably a towel that I would
have wrapped around my neck like a cape. I don’t know...my cat?
My penis?
DN:
Speaking of penises, is their
some kind of group or association for penis Olympics? Or penis tricks?
And are you involved in it?
DY:
No. I, like so many boys,
have come up with little wiener tricks of my own but most of the
ones I used to do were shown to me by Jim Rose. Some sort of stage
show called Puppetry of the Penis. There’s something to be said
about a roomful of people getting together and looking at eachothers
cocks.
DN:
Yeah, I remember when those
guys came out I remember thinking that they were ripping you off.
I also remember the night that you took my girlfriend and myself
into the showers at the museum at the Seattle center and did an
incredible display of penis tricks…unbelieveable. You were doing
penis tricks and the press was there trying to get pictures and
you were keeping them out. That was awesome! That was the night
that you got banned from Seattle.
DY:
Yeah, that was the Ministry
tour.
DN:
When you inadvertently spoke
in front of the fire marshall. How long were you banned?
DY:
I think until he was no longer
in office. The band broke up and, I think by the time we broke up
we were still banned. I know we never played there again.
DN:
He had just been elected.
That was his first week on duty and he was out to prove himself.
So then you went back how many years later with Scratch Acid?
DY:
I think that Ministry tour
was some time in 97’?
DN:
That sounds about right.
DY: I think Scratch Acid came
back in 2005, whenever that Touch and Go Anniversary was.
DN:
So the Seattle ban didn’t
really affect you…
DY:
No, we would have played there.
We had shows in Olympia and Bellingham and stuff, when otherwise
we would have played Seattle.
DN:
So after the ban? I thought
you broke up shortly after the ban.
DY:
Uhh, about a year and a half
later.
DN:
Because I know that he said
that if any venue had you, under any name, any band, with you yourself
in it, that the venue would lose its right to congregate, it would
lose its right to assemble, if your name was used under any format,
or your person was involved under any name and in any format…is
what local promoters told me.
DY:
It was SO incredible, especially
considering that I didn’t even do what he claimed that I did!
DN:
Well you know that the only
other person, well there’s 2 other people that it’s happened to
besides you, Iggy Pop And Johnny Lydon.
DY:
In Seattle?
DN:
Well Iggy was banned, I believe
it was because big Jim Norris threw an M80 into that big giant bass
drum, and Hunt Sales I believe was playing drums at that time. And
it started a fire and Iggy was blamed for it. He was banned for
like 10 years though. He was banned a lot longer than you were.
And now that I’m remembering I think it was Johnny Lydon that banned
Seattle. HE banned Seattle, and then he wrote that song about Seattle.
DY:
I haven’t heard the song,
all I remember is him saying (in British accent), “I’m not playing
there!”
DN:
I remember watching him play
at the Paramount Theater, then getting to hang out with him and
drinking beer all night. He was one of the nicest guys in the world.
There were thousands of kids screaming up at the balcony, “I love
you Johnny!” and he kept screaming back, “So do I!”. Then he kept
giving Lisa and me Heinekens and said, “Do you want to see something
really funny?” We said sure, he said wait here, and goes down the
stairs and opens the door to where all those hundreds of people
were, ran back up the stairs, he and the band run out the back door,
jump into the van. First they destroy the dressing room. They totally
destroyed the dressing room. Then those hundreds of fans run into
the dressing room and start stripping it of everything they can,
then security runs in and thinks the kids destroyed the dressing
rooms. So he broke the mirrors, destroyed the dressing room, then
ran out and let the fans take the blame for it. It was very entertaining
and very funny. He also gave us his rosary, which was very nice.
And we gave him our cat Pinnochio’s rosary. Incredibly nice guy.
DY:
My only encounter with him,
he was not nice.
DN:
Well that’s what I hear from
everyone else. But I’ve always had that situation. Maybe I have
a calming effect on assholes.So you’re back home temporarily and
the next show is here in Austin?
DY:
No the next show is in Dallas,
then Houston, then Austin.
DN:
Have you thought about what
would your epitaph be?
DY:
I have not thought about that.
“Here lies David, and he’s not with us anymore”.
DN:
Have you ever been to the
Hollywood cemetery?
DY:
Oh many, many times.
DN:
Have you seen Mel Blanc’s
tombstone?
DY:
Haha. Yeah, “That’s all folks!”
DN:
I thought that was good.
DY:
Patty McDaniels right over
there by Johnny Ramone, sorry, DeeDee Ramone.
DN:
It’s DeeDee, right?
DY:
Yeah. No! Johnny!
DN:
Yeah, it’s always stacked
with beads and feathers and peoples demo tapes.
DY:
Beer caps And guitar picks.
DN:
So do you love L.A.?
DY:
I do! I love L.A. more than
Randy Newman does. I’m going to be here until checkout time I think.
DN:
Do you still live in Glendale?
DY:
No, I live in Silverlake.
DN:
That’s a nice area, up and
coming I hear.
DY:
A lot of people say that if
you live in Los Angeles you don’t walk anywhere. Well that’s just
not true. I walk a lot. Within in a mile, there are a ton of cool
restaurants and bars. We walk a bunch. We drive to some place then
get really really drunk and then walk home.
DN:
When I lived out there in
Echo Park you used to guest bartend. Are you still guest bartending
out in L.A.?
DY: I haven’t done it in years.
I haven’t done it in at least two years.
DN:
Almost as long as I’ve been
gone. Is that fun, guest bartending?
DY:
A little bit. It makes me
nervous because I’m afraid that I’m not going to do it as well as
I should. I’m afraid I’ll make some mistake or fuck something up,
but usually it’s fun. And the drinks are free and that’s my favorite
price.
DN:
What would you like to do
that you haven’t done? Right now, you’re pretty busy with your art,
aren’t you (http://www.davidyow.net )?
DY:
Right now I’m really busy
with acting. The art’s on hold. I had this show in NY and after
I got everything back I’m kind of taking a break from that. And
now I’m focusing more on acting, trying to get parts in movies and
stuff like that.
DN:
Is there anything we can see
you in at this point?
DY:
Umm, there’s some old movies
that are NetFlix-able but they’re not very good and the majority
of the things I’ve done…I’ve done about 20 $800 budget movies but
now that I’m actually sort of vying for roles in actual major motion
pictures that I want so desperately badly that I can’t even find
the words to tell you how desperately badly I want this part…
DN:
Well, good luck with that.
DY:
Thanks a bunch. In fact, I
sent an email just this morning that I hope to get a response to
soon so that I know what’s going on with this thing cause it’s been
months doing the 4 auditions for this thing and, god, I want it
really bad. Really fucking bad David.
DN: Good. I’ll be thinking positive
thoughts about that.
DY:
Thank you.
DN:
What about music in the future?
Do you see yourself starting another band?
DY:
No, I don’t think that’s going
to happen. I think that on occasion I’ll do collaborations with
friends from time to time but I don’t think I’ll ever I’ll be in
a band full time again.
DN:
How does it feel being back
on tour again? Does it come back naturally? Do you love it? Or is
it horrible?
DY:
I tell you what, I do love
it but something has changed between now and 2 years ago when the
Cheaters rolled through because when the Cheaters did it, I was
49 years old and it was a little bit rough but it wasn’t that hard.
And I enjoyed it but I had been going to gym like crazy beforehand
and trying to build up my stamina you know. and whatever, but now...
DN:
Yeah, I thought it’d be firmer.
DY:
What? Firmer?
DN:
Yeah, the ass…
DY:
Oh, my satchel? Yes. And now
that I’m 51, it was at our second show. We did Atlanta, then we
did our second show and it was the 2nd or 3rd song and I felt like I was going to die. I just
thought, Wow, I’m not going to make it, a quarter of the way through
the set! So, on the rest of the tour I just got to the point where
I’ve taught myself how to store up some reserve energy and not just
go as hard as I can from the start. I think it’s oscillating between
just going nuts and not going as nuts.
DN:
Yeah, I’ve been dealing with
that a lot myself. I’ll tell you something that’s been working for
me. Have you ever tried zip fizzes? It’s a powder that you pour
into a drink and it’s a major amount of B12 and vitamins. It gets
you through a set, and I’m addicted to them now.
DY:
Zip fizzes?
DN: It comes in this container,
you add water. It’s a powder, and it’s loaded with B12. Never do
2. One will get you through an hour, an hour and a half set, and
it gives you all the energy in the world. It’s so great.
DY:
Zip as in zipper? And scissors?
As in what you cut paper with?
DN:
No, zip fizzes. Fizzes as
in it fizzes up when you add the water in.
DY:
Aw, aw! I’ll look for that.
DN: I don’t think it has any
caffeine in it at all but it gets you through the set. And I need
it too because I too, am getting old. So the art is on hold right
now but do you see it rearing its head again?
DY:
Oh yeah, yeah. If I can get
this acting thing to take off, I’m hoping and I’m praying that that
will pay the bills. Any down time I have will be spent on the art
because, as much as I enjoy the art, it never comes anywhere close
to paying any of the bills. I haven’t done any of the math but I
sold 5 pieces at my last show in NY but when you figure the pay
out hourly, I don’t know, it’s probably like 30 cents an hour.
DN:
Haha. I totally understand.
DY:
I mean, it’s so arbitrary.
DN: I mean you make it to sell
it, but then you price it outrageously cause you don’t really want
to sell it, you just want to show it off. If I make art and say
okay this is to sell, but when you put a price on it and consider
the amount of imagination and the amount of stress, the simple things,
the cost of supplies, but then your hours spent, and the agony and
the stress and the deadlines, its impossible to put a price on.
DY:
And by standard gallery operating
procedure the gallery takes 50% of that. It’s just really difficult,
especially in this economy. I know I have friends out here that
in the past have done pretty well, making like 6 figures with their
art, up until a few years ago but now they have to wait tables to
supplement their incomes.
DN: I remember back when you
guys were rehearsing for this upcoming tour, you and I did some
powerful drinking at that time.
DY:
Yes we did.
DN:
And how was that first night
onstage after that session of drinking?
DY:
Well, it was fine. The funny
thing was that that entire trip, from the time I left home to go
practice in Austin, then return home before we left to do the shows
was a total of 3 weeks. I had more than I should have to drink than
I should have every single night of that 3 weeks. I’m actually kind
of proud that we pulled through, especially since we played so many
shows all in a row.
DN:
Well, it’s called stamina.
And we were born into it, or its ingrained in us or something. Did
you happen to see the fight at the Halloween party?
DY:
On the 30th? Yeah, at the Long Branch?
DN:
Yes, did you happen to see
the incident at the end of the party?
DY: I’m sure that I did, of course
I have no recollection of leaving there. I’m pretty sure that Bufx
gave me a ride home but I don’t remember.
DN:
Well I was jumped by a couple
of guys, and left there covered in blood…of course, it was all my
blood.
DY:
Where were you jumped?
DN:
On the patio! We had finished
our set and the band after us was playing their set, and were apparently
pretty bad, which I didn’t notice. I thought they were good cause
I was properly wasted and I was walking out the door to sit with
some friends, with you actually. And 3 or 4 dudes walked up, young
hipsters that started making comments about how pathetic it is to
see old dudes that think they can rock. I was caught up in a conversation
and didn’t notice what they were saying til someone nudged me and
said, hey, I think they’re talking about you. So I said, okay what
is it? What do you want? And they said why were you fucking with
our band in there? And I said, your band? They said yeah, those
were our friends. I found out later that, first of all, the band
denies any knowledge of them. They were friends of mine, I booked
them, this is my party, and my band just played. So the guy says,
yeah I saw you guys, you sucked. And according to some people, I
pushed him in the chest and started to walk away and according to
other people, I punched him. Either way, the guy on the side of
me sucker punched me right in my Elvis glasses and it cut
a ring in my eye and I started profusely bleeding, tables went down,
glasses got knocked over and broke, everyone thought the blood was
from that, the whole patio erupted into a fight. They didn’t realize
that they were messing with the wrong guy. 3 of them took off running,
a 4th one and I went out rolling in the street, it went on and on. And
you were right there…for all of this!
DY: I have no recollection of
any of that, whatsoever! And the next day was when we left, and
I know there was no blood on me. I was probably hiding under the
chair or something like that.
DN:
Do you have another question
for me?
DY:
What you’d have for lunch?
DN:
Well, I didn’t eat anything
David because I’m in paint mode, and when I’m in paint mode, I don’t
eat. I eat once a day and its usually in the afternoon. It’s usually
painting, painting, painting, Pabst Blue Ribbon, painting, painting,
painting, Pabst Blue Ribbon, painting…And lots of coffee. I have
a pretty regimented diet of protein and vegetables.
DY:
Yeah, that’s what my girlfriend
and I do, meat and vegetables. We try to stay away from carbs and
all that.
DN:
Yeah, try to stay from carbs
and dairy, except for an occasional pizza.
DY:
Yeah, you can’t knock pizza.
DN:
Are you going to be a happy
old man?
DY:
Yes! I am a happy old man!
DN:
Are you looking forward to
that? Getting old?
DY:
Uhhhhhhhhhhh,,,,,,,ummmmmmmmmm,
yeeeaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh? I suppose. I hope not to be there any
time soon, but I will be.
DN:
What’s the favorite material
object that you own?
DY: I don’t know. It’s probably
the refrigerator, my computer or my bicycle.
DN:
What’s your favorite food?
DY: I don’t really have one.
It used to be Mexican. It’s too hard to pick, too hard to pick.
DN:
Do you have a favorite song?
DY:
Haha, no! But I did karaoke
at Delilah’s the other night and knocked it out of the park.
DN:
What’s your favorite color?
DY:
Clear.
DN:
Haha, Very good, very good.
Who is your favorite interviewer?
DY:
David Nobody! And David Letterman.
DN:
Ohhh! Have you been on Letterman?
DY:
I haven’t been interviewed
on Letterman, but I’ve been on the show.
DN:
What, in the audience?
DY:
When Jesus Lizard played Lalapalooza,
I guess Paul Schaffer and David Letterman were talking about Lalapalooza
and they showed us for about 2 seconds.
DN:
Speaking of celebrities, do
you ever get starstruck?
DY:
I’ve been nervous around some
famous folks. I’ve always had a deep respect for Nick Cave and we’ve
spent a fair amount of time hanging out. But for some reason the
last time the Grammys came around, I think it was back in Jan.,
Nick and I were hanging out and for some reason I got really nervous.
I don’t know what the fuck was wrong with me.I felt that every thing
I was saying was stupid, or had been said before. Him and Col. Sanders.
DN:
Col. Sanders? Huh, I’ve had
the same thing with Mr. Cave. I mean, we’ve barbecued, he’s drawn
in my journal, we’ve told stories, and then other times, I can’t
even venture near him. I don’t know why that is cause he’s a very
nice man.
DY: I think what it was was we
were talking about movies and I was talking about John Hawk in a
movie where he was totally bad ass, and Nick was saying that he
didn’t like that movie. He felt like it wasn’t harsh enough.
DN:
Well I can see him saying
that.
DY:
Yeah, but that’s ridiculous.
If that movie isn’t harsh enough, what is Deliverance? A
Disney flick?
DN:
Did you guys do any live recording
on this tour?
DY:
No, we haven’t.
DN:
When are you getting to town?
DY:
A week from today, I think
the 5th?
DN:
If you could be any kind of
animal, what would you be?
 DY:
A Little Buddy.
DN:
Hahahahahaha! A little bunny?
DY:
No! Little Buddy, my cat!
Little Buddy! Yeah, a little bunny. Who the fuck wouldn’t want to
be a cute little bunny?
DN:
So Little Buddy is your cat?
How old is Little Buddy?
DY:
6 in march.
DN:
My Chihuahua, Cactus, just
turned 14.
DY:
Wow.How much longer are we
gonna do this?
SCRATCH
ACID PLAYS EMO’S EAST SAT. 12/10!
photos were taken by Shawn Truitt @ CBGB's in 1987!
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