Goddamn Gallows at the Wormy Dog Saloon

The Show

Recently Recently I had the good for­tune [Sidenote: Thanks to the good folks at Red Eye USA and tour man­ager Jonny Ver Planck (he’s also the band’s man­ager) for grant­ing me full access dur­ing the show.] to doc­u­ment the Reverend Horton Heat’s per­for­mance at Oklahoma City’s Wormy Dog Saloon in Bricktown. Five years ago, at a pre­vi­ous Horton Heat show, I was very pleased to dis­cover the music of open­ers The Tossers, a Chicago-based band that melds punk rock with Irish tra­di­tional music. This tour’s open­ing act was no less excit­ing. The Goddamn Gallows, who blend rock­a­billy, roots, folk, Americana, and coun­try music with just enough hard­core and punk […] to make your par­ents hate it, poured out enough sweat and snot in their ener­getic set to fill buck­ets. The band’s biog­ra­phy is all over the inter-webs, so I won’t repeat it here.

In addi­tion to the music, the audi­ence were enthralled by the onstage antics of accordionist/​washboard player TV’s Avery as he tor­mented bassist Fish-gutzzz, cov­er­ing the bass player’s mouth while he strug­gled to sing, rub­bing his dread­locks in the bassist’s chest while the Fish-gutzzz attempted a solo, and giv­ing his hap­less band­mate a “Wet Willie.”

First row audi­ence were drenched as snot can­nons launched and bev­er­ages spewed. Immediately fol­low­ing one such inci­dent, I ducked down from my posi­tion at the stage left cor­ner, lest Avery aim for me and my cam­era gear. He looked straight at me and nod­ded in acknowl­edge­ment of my pru­dent action.

Their tour man­ager kindly passed my inter­view ques­tions to band mem­bers Mikey Classic (lead vocal, gui­tar, upright bass), Fish-gutzzz the Ignorant (vocal, upright bass), Uriah “Baby Genius” Baker (vocal, drums), TV’s Avery (accor­dion, wash­board, spoons, upright bass, drums, fire), Jayke Orvis (man­dolin, banjo, gui­tar), and Joe Perreze (vocal, banjo).

Goddamn Gallows have a web­site. You can buy Goddamn Gallows mer­chan­dise at Farmageddon Records, iTunes and Amazon.

The Interview

Mercury Photo BureauMike, Since [the band is] so close to a string or jug band in [its] choice of instru­ments (and also […] mate­r­ial), would you ever con­sider adding old-time gospel or blue­grass har­mony to the band’s sound?

Mikey ClassicWe do add some old-time ele­ments to our songs some­times, as we see fit. Especially on the 7 Devils album, where we began exper­i­ment­ing with our sound a whole hel­luva lot more.

MPBSince the rac­coon inci­dent at the Checkpoint Charlie show in New Orleans, have there been any other par­tic­u­larly excit­ing or mem­o­rable gigs?

Mikey ClassicJust last month, a good friend of ours [Sidenote: That would be Hog Luvdog of the Sleazetones] was at our show com­plain­ing about how one of his teeth was wig­gly and falling out. He invited Avery to pull it for him onstage, fore­go­ing expen­sive den­tist bills. It turned out beau­ti­fully dis­gust­ing, and some­one posted the event on YouTube under Goddamn Gallows dentistry.

MPB Fish-gutzzz, when did you first real­ize you wanted to play upright bass? — or was it more a mat­ter of necessity?

Fish-gutzzzBack in 2001, my friend Dez and I went into a music store in Lansing, Michigan. We had been lis­ten­ing to a lot of clas­sic coun­try and psy­chobilly and wanted to look at upright basses. As soon as I played it, I knew I was doomed.

MPBHow’d you wind up play­ing Margaret Dumont to Avery’s Harpo Marx?

Fish-gutzzzDid you just call me a woman? Avery is a sick per­son and I got stuck next to him on stage. So basi­cally I got f*cked.

MPB Uriah, did you ever fan­ta­size about join­ing the cir­cus when you were a kid?

Uriah “Baby Genius” BakerDidn’t care for the cir­cus horses and goats. And ele­phants freak me out.

MPBGinger Baker, Keith Moon, Buddy Rich, Elvin Jones, Baby Genius. Sound about right?

UriahGinger Bread? Keith who? Buddy what? HAHAHA and I don’t know, maybe just Baby G is all they need to know, so stop ask­ing! Love you; ’bye?

MPB Avery, did the “vil­lage idiot” rou­tine exist from the start, or did it come about grad­u­ally? How have you refined it over time?

TV’s AveryThe vil­lage idiot rou­tine. Well, let me first off applaud the rather indel­i­cate way in which you phrased the inquiry. Routine inher­ently denotes mechan­i­cal per­for­mance of an estab­lished pro­ce­dure; what I strive to accom­plish is a purely unique and spon­ta­neous per­for­mance every night. Granted there is some rep­e­ti­tion (regur­gi­ta­tion might be a more appro­pri­ate descrip­tion) but in whole I think we accom­plish some­thing novel. So, to sum­ma­rize, if you attend our show, I’ll bite your genitals.

MPB Please don’t bite my man bits.

TV’s Avery[…]

MPBEveryone in the band is pretty heav­ily inked; no sur­prise for a band with its roots in Punk. Your arms are tat­too-free, and in the band’s press-kit you “com­plain” that your fel­low band mem­bers lured you away from a good job. Are you hold­ing off on arm tat­toos as a safety net for future employment?

TV’s AveryYes, but purely in pur­suit of crim­i­nal enter­prises. I’m too far gone now to return to polite soci­ety. Visible tat­toos and other such iden­ti­fy­ing marks would be a lia­bil­ity. I’ll still have to potato-peel the one off of my hand, however.

MPBJayke, you played an “F”-style man­dolin at the Wormy Dog show, but I know that’s not the only man­dolin you own. Which is your favorite, and why?

Jayke OrvisI started on an “A”-style because they’re, like, fifty bucks. The one I’m play­ing now is cus­tom built for me by Weber. Out of the two man­dolins I own, it’s my favorite.

MPBYou guys have all the instru­ments needed for a string band except the fid­dle. Ever thought about adding fid­dle to your own multi-instru­men­tal­ist resumé?

JaykeI’ve tried to play fid­dle before, but it was atro­cious. I rented one from a music store for twenty bucks and attempted saw­ing out notes. At the time, I had a Bluetick Coonhound who would start howl­ing like crazy any­time I picked it up. It was awful, so to feel bet­ter I turned around and sold the rented fid­dle for 150 bucks. Never look back!

MPB Joe, was the deci­sion to inject more “Roots and Americana” influ­ence into the group’s compositions/performances an organic one? How did it come about?

Joe PerrezeI’d say it was pretty organic. Before I hopped on full time, Jayke was tak­ing care of the banjo work, giv­ing us our strongest “roots” sta­ple, 7 Devils. Before that, Mikey laid down all the banjo heard on Ghost of th’ Rails. When I joined for the record­ing and tour­ing for 7 Devils, I was just an exten­sion; an extra set of hands to enable us to have all the instru­ments all the time, all at once.

MPBDoes your style of banjo play­ing owe more to Earl Scrugg’s three-fin­ger style, or to nine­teenth-cen­tury “frail­ing,” or to some­thing else entirely?

JoeIt’s mainly clawham­mer and frail­ing banjo, with bits of fin­ger pickin’ and flat pickin’ mixed in. I would say I’m a clawham­mer player who switches up every cou­ple of songs.

Photo Gallery

See these pic­tures + the Reverend Horton Heat on my Flickr pho­to­stream.