Speedbuggy

Thrasher Magazine, Oct, 2005 by Chinese Pimp

TIMBO, FROM HAMMOND, LOUISIANA, and Brady Sloan, a military brat moving from all over eventually to LA, met each other in a bar in 1996. As a few beers passed they start talking music; they realized they had the same influences, listening to country as kids and punk rock as they grew older. Timbo and Brady saw a band that combines the attitudes and music of both. LA resident Pat Munzingo soon joined on the drums. The band would go through many guitarists before they finally found Don Rutherford of Knoxville, Tennessee, and Greg "The Chin" McMullen on a pedal steel guitar to make the band complete. Speedbuggy now has the line up necessary to play the music they always envisioned. To date Speedbuggy has released five LPs, two EPs, plus a bunch of compilations. A few records on the Cargo label, one for the now defunct Man's Ruin, a record on the Porterhouse label that the owner Greg Hetson produced, and of course a bunch of stuff on the "good luck finding any money" type of labels, and most recently a live one produced by John X on Split 7 Records.

How has your sound evolved over time?

Timbo: The first stuff we were doing was a tinge of country on top of punk rock, whereas now we're country with a punk rock attitude. Our punk rock influences have really helped us be more realistic with the songs we write, and our attitude towards the world, what's going on in it, and just the everyday shit that revolves around us.

You mention country; how are you different from others in the genre?

Timbo: A lot of people now don't know about the great old country. They might know of a handful of names but don't fully understand it. People might turn on the country radio stations today and think "What the fuck? I might as well turn over to the classic rock station because this does nothing for me."

Brady Sloan: A lot of people don't realize country has had some amazing songs and musicians over time, a lot of real shit kickers, heavy songs. Check out Kris Kristofferson, songs about hardcore drinkers and hardcore partying, way more than some of the rockers ever were. Somehow country music has gotten watered down over the last 20 years or so--banjo, fiddle seem taboo. We see ourselves bringing the music back to its roots, to its original form.

Any skating history amongst you guys?

Don Rutherford: I started back in 1977 with a Nash, then went through a couple of Western Auto decks. My folks didn't support me at all. I would do downhill and street stuff in the suburbs of Knoxville. In 1982 I got my first real board, a Mike McGill, and built a half-pipe. Then in 1987 1 blew out my knee and didn't skate for four years. When I started back up people were jumping stairs, flips and shit. Sorry kids, but that's not what I'm about; for me it's all transition and flow. I did my thing for a little bit, and now I'm out in Cali with all of these nice parks and I'm still skating at the ripe ol' age of 39.

Pat Munzingo: I was lucky I grew up in LA. Like Don, I started around '77. I went to construction sites, ripped off all the wood I could left and right, then I built a halfpipe. I used to skate all of the old parks. I was lucky; I was able to skate Marina, Upland, Whittier--you name it. I went up north to ride Winchester and down south to Del Mar and Oasis. In a contest when I was 14 or so I skated with Tony Hawk. He had to have been about 11 or 12. I came in fifth, he was 23rd or so. By 1983 I started to get good, but I was also playing in a punk rock band at the time (Decry). I was picked up by Santa Cruz, then I decided to quit because I had peaked. Plus I couldn't do what others were doing. So 20 years went by and I decided to pick it up again. I'm not as good as I was, but I don't care. I just want to have fun.

You returned from Europe. How was it?

Brady Sloan: Great. We pack them in over there. The European crowd is more receptive than some of the shows we have done here in the States. The two biggest bands in country and rock over there are Johnny Cash and the Ramones. We infuse sounds from both into what we do, which in some ways gives the audience the best of both worlds.

Over in Europe are you playing more clubs, festivals, or a combination?

Brady Sloan: Depending on the time of year, we will do four to five festivals a tour, then fill the rest of the time with club dates. Club shows typically draw around 300 to 600 people, whereas some of the festivals we've played have drawn upwards of 20,000 people.

What kind of bills do you usually play?

Brady Sloan: We play with everybody. Sometimes we're next to punk bands, other times it's a country or metal band. Sometimes we wonder what we're doing on the same bill with some of these guys, but the reality is that it doesn't matter over there. The audiences like it all, they like having it mixed up and that's what we are all about. In a little German town we were in we spent the whole night hanging out with these kids who were listening to the theme songs for Knight Rider and Friends all night long, and when we say "all night long" we mean all night, because they were playing that shit over and over all night--and they were fucking into it.