Saturday, March 31, 2007 
(interview originally posted at: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendId=153178380)

drunken interiew @5am: the 77's

at a recent show in Ypsilanti, i ran into Alex King, drummer for one of my all time favorite bands: the 77's. we hung out watching the show and drinking beers and discussing the bands playing this show, when he invited us back to the Barn House for some after hours beers and a smoke. ..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

We made it to the Barn House safely, and gathered around the kitchen table with Kyle Kipp, the singer of the 77's. PBR's and smokes passed around the table while i shot video of Al playing some new material on acoustic guitar, and our conspiring to send our perky hippie-chick upstairs to kick Kyle's roommate Jesse Tack(front man forEugene&Rusty) out of bed to come downstairs for some beers and music.

Jesse came down and smiled at us all bleary-eyed, and had one beer before retreating back to bed at the first opportunity that our drunken eyes weren't on him. i shot some footage of Al playing

"Bullet" by the Misfits and more hashing out of the new song for the cd in progress. i whipped out the digital recorder and cracke a fresh beer and made myself comfortable for the interview

Analog Mutant: so what do you guys have going on with the album?

Kyle Kipp: well, we're recording our next record, we're going to take more time on it, and make it sound better...we're recording it at the El Ojo Studios at the Dirty K Ranch

Analog Mutant: so what's the deal with this album?... what are the tracks?... what are they about?

Al King: they're all really heartfelt, pure rock n roll tracks. for the most part they all come from our experiences. like one of our newer songs "They All Brought Knives" was based on one of the shows we played in Hamtramck at the Painted Lady... the whole shady scene of it....cruisin' in the back alley and showing up late and tons of freaks and transvestites out there, and people with knives and these mustaches...

Kyle Kipp: ...and we all left in the middle of the headlining set, just throwing shit out because we wanted to head back for the after party in Ypsi.... do you remember? MT-TV was the band headlining ...

Analog Mutant: (falls on floor laughing)

Kyle Kipp: ...they had all these stacks of amps like they were Iron Maiden or something..they were all women except they had a dude drummer i think... the bass player had one of those little headless basses...

Analog Mutant: how many songs are going to end up on this cd?

Kyle Kipp: 7, 8. maybe 9. not all of them new

Al King: we're going to re-record the "Don't Nothing Hurt" song. we are eventually going to re-record "Never Stop Drinking" but we're in the process of pretty much just the new ones that we're recording...probably about 3 re-records and the rest are going to be new ones... for  "They All Brought Knives" we did a real lo-fi thing off a practice session for that song, that's the one we have on our website...but we're going to do a full on killer studio version of that song, minus all the rigamarole at the begining...its kind of a cool song that i think has a Rolling Stones influence or a CCR influence to it...with a modern vibe to it

Analog Mutant: is this going to be a total indie release?

Kyle Kipp: yeah. we're going to pool in all of our resources, get all our friends in on the process adding everything from harmonica or keyboards...

Al King: we're trying for organs, B3, shakers...we're looking for a lot of outside influences

Kyle Kipp: and we're bringing in better ears on the post-production process to make it all sound as good as possible...i'd like to commision some artists to do the layout and designs for the sleeve...we want to bring in people from the community to help us out

Al King: when it's finished i think we're trying to market it and shop it for a demo for a distribution deal...

Kyle Kipp: there are a few labels we have our eyes on that might be able to do something for us

Al King: we're trying to take it all to the next level, get more shows, more exposure and see where it all goes...

Analog Mutant: who is going to be on the cd?

Al King: i'd like to ask Jesse (Eugene & Rusty)... he's a helluva musician and i really like his writing style and i'd like for him to help out in any way . we really respect him and value his help.

Kyle Kipp: we want someone on organ..

Al King: i'd like to ask my dad to help us out. he plays B3. he said we sucked but i'm going to try to convince him otherwise

Analog Mutant: why would he say that?!?!?

Kyle Kipp:he's an old school musician

Al King: he's like a real hard ass! he's been playing around for years... he owns King's Keyboard House up in Ann Arbor...played in a bunch of bands, been on some records, done stuff for Gordie Howe,stuff for the Red Wings, old Bob Seger, a song for Super Bowl 40, , "Rocking in the BigHouse" for U of M... he's a big inspiration of mine, but he's a real hard ass too! when i was in LA in a band called Kill City Affair, he came and heard us... told me "you guys are too loud!" but he had some good constructive criticism for us...he drives a hard bargain but we'd love to have him play some B3 and i think i'm getting him to come around, and to come around on a more personal level too...it'll be good though since he is like the most insane B3 player i've ever heard, he's like a doctor on that thing

Analog Mutant: what about you Kyle? why'd you become a musician?

Kyle Kipp: (shrugs) ...i just always wanted to play guitar... so i started playing when i was like 10. my mom always had a guitar in the closet...there was always music in the house...my parents always played different instruments when they were young, but it never really rubbed off on my brother or i for some reason...my dad played bagpipe in a  band...mom was into violin when she was a kid

Analog Mutant: so how did you guys meet up?

Kyle Kipp: i put up like 2 or 3 flyers around Ann Arbor looking for a drummer, a few days later Al called and the 2 of us jammed at my place and we hit it off from there...and then he brought in Caleb

Al King: i worked with him at this rock n roll camp called Day Jams...we teach kids how to form bands, i'm an instructor up there... it's like School of Rock but real life... and the kid from School of Rock actually took lessons there, playing guitar, attending Day Jams

Analog Mutant: what made you want to be in a band? or become musicans in the first place?

Al King: i've got a lot of roots in music... my uncle played in a band called Destroy All Monsters with Ron Ashton from the Stooges and Mike Davis, and Niagra was the singer... i learned how to play in the rehearsal studio during Destroy All Monsters...Ron Ashton was there when i was playing my first drum set at age 4 with my uncle ...i had a big Stooges influence in my life, had the records when i was like 4... i basically grew up singing "Now I Wanna Be Your Dog" before i could say my ABC's... then my parents divorced and i was on the west coast.... i was doing a lot of cool things out there... playing the Warped Tour for like 8 shows when i was 17 with the punk ska band i was in...i played some really cool shows while living in LA for about 5 years...the Whisky, the House of Blues, the Roxy

Analog Mutant: who are some the better bands that you've played shows with?

Al King: all these southeastern Michigan bands are great... for instance, The Hard Lessons are probably the biggest band we've played with..

Kyle Kipp: ..they're top-notch...but a couple local bands we've played with that i think are pretty cool, SikSik Nation from Ann Arbor, Royal Affairs from Lansing are really fucking cool and they're going to go somewhere...

Al King: Eugene&Rusty has a sweet sound..

Kyle Kipp: of course! Jesse's band is a real party band, real feel good shit. not like all serious, just real fun...that's what's so cool about it...and all the girls really get into it too... they don't take themselves too seriously like most of the bands we play with.

Al King: personally i like Satin Peaches, i caught them at the Metro Times Blowout...they have a mind blowing set really...real cool, a real Detroit-ness about them...they're like the Beatles or Oasis type brit-pop but with a crazy guitar sound, the guy has all these pedals and he's smashing them with his hand making all this crazy sound...hitting the Big Muff with his hand and pulling the whammy bar out of his guitar and basically breaking it off the guitar...

by this time the sun was starting to come up and our perky hippie-chick wasn't so perky anymore, laying on the couch kind of half talking in her sleep... so i thanked the boys for the interview and gathered up my gear and wandered off for in the search of some breakfast and more beers to wash it down with

for more info on the 77's check out www.myspace.com/lasdrogas