by Michael Todd
(Editor's Note: This Q&A is part of a short series of interviews with bands playing Friday's "Hear Nebraska Presents a Night of Punk Rock 'n' Roll" show at the Hole in Benson. The show starts at 7:30 p.m., costs $5, and features a knock-down-drag-out bill: Baby Tears, Bullet Proof Hearts, Dads and Scratch Howl.)
For any honorable person, domesticated cats are pretty much the root of all evil. They're like the prissy high school cheerleader to your friendless music-nerd self (note: metaphor was not inspired by personal experience). Thing is, people let these prude know-it-alls live in their houses and do unimaginable things in a box in plain view.
Punk band Scratch Howl's guitarist Aaron Parker hears this kind of anti-feline diatribe quite a bit from his bandmate Evinrude Jones, but only when Jones is out to play. The man who breaks out "crazy-ass guitar solos" was born A\ustin Mayer, and perhaps to the good fortune of this Friday's audience, cat hate won't be trumpeted as Mayer will be sitting behind the pickle drums. Hear Nebraska spoke with songwriter Parker about his latest SoundCloud uploads, the band's Violent Femmes cover and Jones' jones to rid the world of hairball-producing vermin.
Hear Nebraska: I see you posted a few songs to a SoundCloud account just yesterday. How were those recorded and produced?
Aaron Parker: Those were recorded inside of a basement on an iPhone (laughs). Those were me and my past buddy. He played drums on them, so it’s not anything current. They are current songs that we play, though.
The Hearth and the Salamander by scratchhowl
HN: What led you to post those just yesterday, though?
AP: We had ’em on a different SoundCloud page that was my personal page before we started Scratch Howl. And so, I just decided to take those ones over and just post them so people could give them a listen.
HN: One song in particular lends itself to an obvious question, so tell me about "Why Do We Pray?"
AP: What do you want to know about it?
HN: Was it your song or someone else’s in the band?
AP: Oh, I write all the songs thus far for the band. But that one, it’s a song about self-determination, not relying on anything else to get anything. That’s probably the most straightforward answer I could probably give you.
Why Do We Pray? by scratchhowl
HN: Since you're a new band, do you have only a few songs in your repertoire or do you have more from past bands and projects you’ve been a part of?
AP: For the show? Oh, I have about 30 songs written. Definitely, yeah. But we’re actually planning on playing a cover. This is the first time we’re playing a cover.
HN: Do you want that to be a surprise, though?
AP: Um, I really don’t care, no. We’re going to do “Add It Up” by the Violent Femmes.
HN: OK, why that song?
AP: We're all really big fans of the Violent Femmes, but unfortunately Chris, our bassist, is just starting off, and the Violent Femmes have a legendary bassist. As far as the bass part, it’s not going to be on point, but yeah, we’re hoping a lot of people know who the Violent Femmes are, so we’re hoping we can get maybe a little bit of a singalong going, but we’ll see how that works.
HN: Awesome, and you said the SoundCloud recordings were from pretty far back, but have you found a drummer yet or what’s the setup going to be for Friday?
AP: What we’re actually going to do is, Austin is our lead guitarist. When we first started off with Scratch, it was me and my buddy Brandon. Then I met Austin at an open mic, so he’s going to play the pickle-bucket drums, and Chris is going to be on bass.
HN: OK, and in your bio, it says some guy "just shows up sometimes," so tell me, who is this guy Evinrude Jones?
AP: Evinrude Jones is Austin Meyer’s alter ego.
HN: OK, and what’s the difference between the two?
AP: Ah, Austin’s a very well-kept person, and Evinrude Jones is a dick who’s afraid of domesticated cats.
HN: (laughs) Why… why cats?
AP: He likes feral cats, but he’s not a big fan of domesticated ones.
HN: How does that factor in at shows?
AP: It factors in ’cause sometimes, you see … well, when we play with the full band, Evinrude Jones likes to wear a headband and go on crazy-ass guitar solos. But unfortunately, Evinrude Jones isn’t gonna be there on Friday because we’ve got Austin on drums, so his alter ego doesn’t come out.
HN: OK, now, even though you guys are new, you’re quickly becoming regulars at The Hole, so for anyone who's never been there, what is it about the venue that keeps you coming back?
AP: You know, I like the setup of it, and I love the DIY. For me personally, I’ve always adapted myself to the punk community just ’cause you don’t rely on anything, you just take matters into your own hands. But it’s a DIY punk venue. If they keep asking us to come back, we’ll definitely keep going back there. I love the place. And we’re gonna definitely try to branch out. We’ve got a show up at Mad Ave., which is like Lincoln’s The Hole. So yeah, there’s something about DIY venues. It’s very hospitable.
Live at the Hole (3/25/2011 Opening for Red City Radio) [Aaron Solo Set] by scratchhowl
* RSVP for Friday's show on Facebook.
Michael Todd is a summer intern for Hear Nebraska. He has also been afraid of domesticated cats ever since his aunt closed the dryer door after Radar crawled inside; then she started it and sent him tumbling. The wrath Radar wreaked the rest of his feline life has permanently scarred Michael. Contact him at michaeltodd@hearnebraska.org.