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WORDS BY JAMES JACKSON
PHOTO BY JACOB Covey
DURDRAJETS
F YOU'RE IN THE HEART OF THE BACKWOODS OF ALABAMA
you are sure to find something deep fried, whether it be the
remains of teenage dolls strung up for the fryer or the hard-charging rev of
the Quadrajets' Southern-fried Dixie roots. Always good for pre-game nights
on the river boat or a night behind phantom wheels is their record Pay the
Deuce on Estrus. So if you're down for passin' the bottle around a stack of
amps that are sure to get you on the floor doing a mega-plex neck crack, be
sure not to miss the windshield-breaking rock 'n' roll of the Quadrajets.
So, what I usually do is write questions at my house, and then get
drunk and hang out. But now I'm just drunk and have skipped the
writing questions part.
Robert: Gonzo journalism.
The last time I saw you guys play, you had a guy named Jason.
R: We killed him.
Tonight you sounded like a whole symphony of big blocks
lined up.
Cheetah: Big block 454s.
Yeah, somethin' big.
C: A sensitive harmonic chaos...wait...a sensitive harmonic chorus of
Buicks. Of Buick Skylarks winding out.
JR: The 'Jets ain't nothin' but a low down groaning chill.
You guys seem to reference a lot of the history of rock and roll.
C: We all listen to a lot of good music, like blues; we're pretty well
proportioned. If you want to do something right you've got to go back
to the roots, and rock and roll-the roots are blues. A lot of the first
punk rock bands that you listened to and read about say the people
they were listening to were Ted Nugent, Black Sabbath, and MC5. You
know those cats were all rebellion and stuff. That was the electric
music they were listening to. People listened to the Mississippi blues
forever; they were into that. If you go back there, then you're pure.
You guys are from the South.
C: The heart of Dixie.
Jamie: The heart of possum. Jamie Thomas' neck of the woods.
Down in Alabama, home of Landslide Skateboards. Landslide is
in Auburn.
JR: Jamie skates, Robert used to skate, and I skate, and that's kind of
how Robert and I got together a long time ago: just by skating. My
brothers and I had a team called Team Nasty.
Is that bar Chukker's still around?
C: Yeah, and Chukker, the owner, is still around and still kickin'.
He always says, "You guys are the greatest band I've ever heard!"
The funny thing is, I've played there in three different bands and
every one of them has been the greatest band he's ever heard.
He's just tanked up, man; he's a trip. It's been around since the
'30s or '40s. It's been a biker bar, a punk rock bar-it's been
through everything. Funkadelic got arrested when they toured
through there in the early seventies; they were doing the diaper
thing way before the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They came out in diapers
and ended up spending the night in jail in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, during
the bad days.
You guys were telling me you were up in
Portland and made it to Burnside.
JR: I skated it just about every day, and ate some shit
pretty good. It was my first time there; it was a trip.
Roger injured himself last tour. He's a booze hound
and was skating in cowboy boots. I've actually got a
hospital card so that if I ever get hurt in that town
again I can fly through registration.
You guys played a handsome, great song tonight
called "All My Rowdy Friends Are Dead."
C: Thank you very much. It's going to be on our new
record in January out on Estrus Records.
Who are all the rowdy friends you pay
tribute to?
C & J: Oh shit, Andre the Giant. We pay tribute to
Sun House, Charlie Patton, Howlin' Wolf, Johnny
Horton, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Redd Fox...
Have you guys ever been to Europe?
C: No, we're tryin'. The Hellacopters promised that
they would bring us over there, but unfortunately there
is a bureaucracy you have to go through to get to
Europe-managers, agents, etc...
How was it on tour with the Hellacopters?
C: Rad. Touring with those guys was like being on
tour with Led Zeppelin.
R: They tear up hotel rooms.
C: At this one show at the end of the set we played
the Stooges' "Funhouse" and everybody was out there
either playing guitar, bass, drums, or screaming into
the microphone, or jumping like they were demonical-
ly possessed. It was an extremely good time.
It looks like we're getting kicked out.
JR: Hulk Hogan, Thrasher magazine, and the
Quadrajets, brother, are just too sweeeeet!
Lineup:
Cheetah, guitar and vocals
Robert, guitars
Jamie, guitars
Ebenezer Pudd, bass and vocals
JR, drums
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