he last time I saw the Stitches play in Hollywood, it was quite the
violent affair. Bottles and pint glasses were flying overhead and
into everybody and falling off barstools really hard. The dance floor
was just pure Chaos-spilled beer and bodies sprawled out all over
the place. As usual, the Stitches played like fuckin' champs, not
giving a hoot about the Carnage going down right in front of them.
Singer Mike Lohrman has been around the Southern California punk
rock and skate scene since
before you Could walk, and all
of the guys-Johnny on quitar.
Pete on bass, and Eddie on
drums-have been skating
and slashing around since
forever. Considering all of this.
the ever-illustrious Spidget
and I decided it was high time
these guys got the Coverage
they deserve. We caught up
with Lohrman after a recent
gig down my way, and here's
how it went.
the
STITCHES
Να
RECORDS
presents the
new album
from
Orange 9mm
PRETEND
HUMAN
Andy Harris: What were you
doing in 1983?
Mike Lohrman: Oh, in 1983? I was
still in high school.
AH: But what were you doing?
Yeah
Well, not going to school too much.
What do most kids do during high.
school? Nothing. I had a job at a gas sta-
tion, changing,
ging oil and stickin' little fuckin' sticky
turds in flat tires for extra money.
AH: You grew up in Orange County, right?
My family moved into one of the first
neighborhoods in Mission Viejo. You see those
signs on the freeway, "The California Dream," you
know, with the golf course and all that. I took my
YZ-80 out on that golf course and fucked the liv-
ing hell out of it all the time. One time, I thought
I was really smart, and I got all hammered and
hopped in my mom's station wagon, took this
thing out on the golf course, and got it stuck on a
fuckin' sand trap thing. All sorts of trouble.
Spidget: Station wagons don't do well in
sand
traps.
Well, it was one of those Mercury things with
the fake wood paneling on the side. The thing
weighed about five tons. We used to eat a lot of
LSD in high school.
AH: Are you still friends with Jason Jessee?
Yeah, but I don't see him much anymore since
he moved up to Santa Cruz. The last time I saw
him, he was talking about bringing back a roman-
tic revival-he was gonna get a pirate haircut and
start wearing a sash.
as
AH: He was the little buddy who hung
around the
older
n't he?
guys, wasn't
When we first hooked up with him, he was this
kid with
I with the pink helmet and pink socks-a full-
on Powell kid from Del Mar. He
He comes from a
Mormon family, but once he got a
got a taste of the
good, he flipped. I'm not sure if the whole reli-
beatdown was enforced in his family, but I
that all my friends who came from religious
backgrounds were fuckin' pitched, man. They
were all just f fuckin' goners. Jason flipped out. He
was violent kid.
gious
know
S: Your guitarist reminded me of Paul
Stanley tonight.
Johnny's really into his twin reverb, Johnny
Thunders sound, so we've been calling him.
Johnny Wunders lately. We came up with anoth-
er one the other day, 'cause he hasn't been skat-
ing and he's putting on some weight. So now we
call him Johnny Thunders-thighs. That one
doesn't go over too well, though.
AH: I saw a pint glass get thrown at
your head tonight. What kind of drink
do you prefer to have thrown at you
during a show?
Oh, I don't know. A full one, I guess. If there's
something in it, that's much better.
AH: Ever catch a drink that's been
thrown at you?
That never happens. I've never been too
sports-minded. I can't even put a skateboard
together
without getting pissed off. I swear,
I'm such a retard. In high school PE, I was
the only guy who had no pubic hair, no dick,
and no muscles.
S: Did you have to take showers?
No, I just avoided the whole thing. I'd leave and
go drink a bunch for lunch and come back to PE
and basically just get beat up for an hour.
AH: Hey, your bassist Pete has got NAMBLA
written on his Mickey Mouse shirt tonight.
What's the connection?
nick
Well, Pete's a member. If you're into the North
American Man Boy Love Association, if you're
gonna go pick up little boys, what better place
to do it than the happiest place on earth?
AH: What's your favorite ride at Disneyland?
The monorail that takes you to the bar at the
Disneyland Hotel. They've got full-on under-
cover Disney cops in the park; you can't back-
pocket whiskey bottles or nothin'. If you get
in trouble in that place, they put you in the
lost and found.
S: You have a record store down south,
don't you?
Yeah. It's called Underdog Records and it's in
Laguna Niguel. We have everything-we're the
greatest thing in the world. It pays my bills at
home and that's all I can ask for. The store is
right across from the Riviera Hotel, and it's like
giant aquarium. The hotel, not the store.
AH: I never hear about the Stitches
going on tour. What's up? Do you guys
ever leave town?
It's
funny;
; we've had all these opportunities to
tour the States, and right when we start getting
set up for that, we get these offers to go to
Europe. So we've gone to Europe twice, and we
still haven't made it past Vegas in the US. But
really, which would you rather do-the south of
France fuckin' cactus fields in Wyoming? It's
pretty easy to figure out.
AH: Who gets punched the most out of all
of you?
Johnny. That used to be my job, but somehow
he's taken over now.
AH: What would you consider a bad
Stitches show?
A bad show would be if we showed up and
played a whole set. That would be really bad.
S: Do
Do you have anything new coming
out soon?
We have a CD of the 8x12 mini-LP coming out,
and a singles collection on CD that should be out
by May or June. By the time those are out, we
should have enough stuff for a new full-length. It
seems like we've written about four new songs in
the last 20 years.
S: Hey, what do you think of the LES
Stitches from New York?
Stitches from
Johnny: They're cute.
S: Do you like them?
M: Well, the name wasn't any rip-off situation
or anything like that. We put out our first single.
right before they came out, so we got dibs on the
name. Those guys are cool. I met them when I
was over there. James, the drummer, is a bar-
tender and so is the singer, Mick. They treated
me well-hooked me up with lots of drinks.
-Andy Harris and Spidget
Orange 9mm
PRETEND I'M HUMAN
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"H20 fuses the early
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with melodic sounding punk
to create inspiring
and amazing music."
-SLAP
'These guys deserve everything
they can get for not forgettin' their roots.
-UNDER THE VOLCANO
"Gratifying hardcore"
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