Epoxies

Thrasher Magazine, April, 2003

THERE'S MUSIC OUT THERE THAT, when you pop it on the stereo, makes every thing seem all right. Sure, jackasses surround us and get so close they seem to crawl under your skin like cockroaches into potato salad. From the White House resurrecting the very demons they created and financed while stripping away our civil rights, there's a veritable tide of shit you've got to wade through to just make it through a day. I've got a remedy. This one comes with a synthesizer, backed by searing guitars and thundering drums, and works by pressing "play." Don't be scared by their ample use of Ductape as a fashion statement. Revel in the fact that Roxy Epoxy is a damn fine yodeler and looks perfectly tazered when she sings. Don't forget, before the term got sliced into a pie chart, there was no difference between punk and new wave. That's where the Epoxies shine--that feeling that, yeah, we're incredibly fucked, so crank the hi-fi, touch something sexy, and dance like mad because (I hope I'm not the first to tell you), we' re closer to a nuclear holocaust than ever before. Don't spend your last days listening to a shitty band. Dr. Grip--drums, Shock Diode--bass, Viz Spectrum--guitar, FM Static--keyboards, Roxy Epoxy--vocals.

Retodd

Being that you're inventive--you've fashioned lasers into your hats with Chapstick caps and constructed a violent bubble machine--what would you do to improve the skateboard?

FM: If you could make them six- or seven-feet across and a lot longer, you would be way less likely to fall, which seems to be a big problem in skateboarding from everything I can tell.

What was the last trick you pulled off skating?

Shock: Pulled off? There's a reason I don't skateboard anymore.

Dr Grip: Breaking my collarbone. I pulled that off magnificently well.

Have you ever had so much stuff on when you're playing that you're choking yourself?

FM: Microphone chords seem to be a popular one in that respect.

Viz: Video tape.

Dr Grip: That didn't work out too well.

Shock: It was more laceration than strangulation.

Video tape is real sharp. Who knew?

Viz: I was quite bloody by the time I was done.

Ever taken off your clothes and realize you've cut off the circulation?

Viz: Scissors are really handy.

Roxy: I was more afraid that I wasn't going to be wearing enough at times. Duct tape tends to lose its stickiness with sweat. There was a breast scare at one point.

Explain.

Roxy: I had to just make sure I was erect (gestures to nipple) during this show or else it was going to slide down and expose breasts.

FM: Where upon everyone else would get erect. There were no straps.

Roxy: It Was pure duct tape. Sold out crowd. Lots of people to see breasts.

What are some aborted costume ideas?

Dr Grip: The cardboard box and dryer hose robot with silver spray paint never came to pass.

FM: Those haven't strictly been aborted so much as shelved like the Christmas-lights-all-over costume; thus far, for fear of electrocution.

What are you most neurotic about?

Roxy: Alarm clocks, locked doors, locked windows, and fleas.

Shock: I'm too hungry to answer that...maybe not...clones don't eat.

FM: Appearing like an idiot in interviews.

In some of your lyrics--like in the song "Science of You"--it's boy-likes-girl songs, but, I believe, from the perspective of a scientist wanting an android. Is that right?

FM: I think your premise is faulty. The point of the song is that the person is trying to utilize science to understand the human condition. He's trying to apply facts and figures and charts to the subject of winning the attention of another.

Roxy: I like Todd's interpretation more.

I got an android feel, but maybe that's just the synthesizers creeping in.

FM: "Molded Plastic" is more android-y. But, honestly, android works. Frankly, if I'd thought of it and there were androids around, those are the girls we'd be trying to get.

How's the new clone behaving? (Shock is a clone).

Dr Grip: It's been a little touch and go.

Any new cracks or congenital defects?

Dr Grip: No, not really. He's very agreeable.

FM: A little more rebooting. He seems in order.

Any other clones tried to infiltrate the band?

FM: You're going to make us paranoid.

Has anyone from the crowd tried to have sex with you in a bathroom stall after a show?

Roxy: No, but I did get groped the other day. That was outside the club, though.

The songs on your self-titled album sound fun and bouncy as hell, as is your live show, but the lyrics are often paranoid, full of desperation and cold anthropomorphism. Why so?

FM: We're fucked, let's dance.

Why?

FM: Because we are fucked, for God's sakes. Where do we even start with that? The whole world is coming apart at the seams.

If that's your attitude, why isn't your stuff more gloomy?

FM: Because we're too despondent to change anything.

Roxy: Might as well have fun for now.

FM: We're kind of like mutants trying to make the best; living in the ruins of a post-atomic world. There's no politics in there because it's too late. So, what are you going to do? Escape.