The Untitled Interview #221: Starring Little Big Bangs

Whilst doing some coverage of this year's Secret Stages, I came across Missourians Little Big Bangs and was instantly hooked on their raw, rabid shredding and messy grit. 

The foursome of LBB graciously answered some questions, read on to delve into the color-outside-the-lines world of Lucy, Colin, Eric, and Ryan. And make sure you check out their Bandcamp to hear plenty of their noise.   

Fuzzy Logic: How do you do?
Eric: Hi.
Colin: Well-met!
Lucy: No, that's not me.
Ryan: Backwards on the toilet.

FL: What was the last song you listened to?
Lucy: I just made up a song called "Baby's gonna drink the water."
Eric: To Parter.
Ryan: Something on 100.3.
Colin: The hum of an industrial dishwasher, dogs playing just outside...

FL: Playing music is:
Ryan: This thing I can't quit doing.
Lucy: Like drinking water.
Eric: Like a mule with a spinning wheel.
Colin: One of three methods left to me for approaching the divine; a swing at playfully escaping the police (broadly defined) in our minds (broady defined).

FL: What album most made you realize you wanted to make music?
Lucy: American Water.
Eric: Listening to In Utero in 6th grade.
Colin: The Shaggs Philosophy of the World.
Ryan: Probably Nirvana or Smashing Pumpkins, but that was a long time ago.

FL: Beatles or Stones?
Eric: Beatles!
Colin: The Kinks. Or Gong.
Ryan: Beatles.
Lucy: Let 'er Bleed Sarg.

FL: What’s your first music memory?
Eric: Listening to the American Graffiti soundtrack with my Dad in our first house, that's one of the few memories I have of the place. I still have that record.
Colin: Earnest sing-alongs, bucketfull of beer in my hair - Against Me! in eighth grade.
Ryan: Probably singing in church. Disgusting.
Lucy: Dripping water.

FL: Top 5 albums (of now, of this week, of ever):
Lucy: Meat Puppets II, Mesopotamia (B-52's), Alpha Centauri (Tangerine Dream), Dirty (Sonic Youth).
Eric: White Light/White Heat (Velvet Underground), Daydream Nation (Sonic Youth), Title TK (The Breeders), Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon and Garfunkel.
Colin: Lately - The Fall Perverted by Language, Getatchew Mekuria Negus of Ethiopia Sax, Fripp & Eno No Pussyfooting, Dung Lung Highe Fantasy/Horror/Animal, Alice Coltrane World Galaxy.
Ryan: Forever Changes - Love, Pet Sounds, Phonography - R Stevie Moore.

FL: Favorite music-related movie?
Lucy: Alice in Wonderland.
Eric: Dazed and Confused.
Colin: Michael Nyman scores? I've yet to watch the film on the Minutemen.
Ryan: Favorite implies things are better, I like different things for different reasons. But Rocky Horror Picture Show.

FL: Half-full or half-empty?
Colin: The draught beer appreciation society never dries up.
Lucy: Half water.
Ryan: Yes.
Eric: It's rarely either. If a liquid is in front of me, and it's potable I compulsively drink it down.

FL: What's the first thing you think when you wake up in the morning?
Eric: Coffee!
Lucy: Where's the water?
Colin: Oh bird song so dear, oh social condition so drear.
Ryan: Changes day to day.

FL: Little-known Little Big Bangs fact?
Colin: Well, the songs seem to write themselves...
Eric: We played for a year without a real drummer. Me, Lucy, and Ryan took turns. Lucy was the best at it.
Lucy: Averaging 57% water.
Ryan: Aliens.

FL: The greatest record store in the world is:
Ryan: The internet.
Lucy: On the waterfront.
Eric: Suicide Notes (formerly Good Vibrations).
Colin: The Love Garden of the past.

FL: What was your first show, either in a band or as a fan?
Lucy: Foo Fighters/QOTSA.
Eric: Smashing Pumpkins on the Mellon Collie tour.
Colin: The great bandstand.
Ryan: In a band - I was in a terrible pop punk-inspired band.

FL: Your boots were made for:
Lucy: Crawling.
Eric: Rain and snow.
Colin: Polishing; walking backwards.
Ryan: Hiking.

FL: Shaken or stirred?
Lucy: Smoked, pickled, chopped, spiked, cracked, and swirled.
Eric: Extracted.
Colin: I already said the draught. Poured, if you will.
Ryan: I like to shake but I like to stir.

FL: What’s the longest flight you’ve ever been on, and where to?
Lucy: I can't get off the plane.
Eric: NYC to London.
Colin: I couldn't sleep or breath, Spain.
Ryan: A few hours to Detroit.

FL: If you weren't in a band you'd be?
Eric: I'd like to write comics, not that being in a band is stopping me, but maybe I'd put more time into it.
Colin: Be "useful" but the whole point is to be beyond use!
Ryan: Only playing Tetris.
Lucy: Soaking in the tub.

FL: Favorite spot in St. Louis?:
Ryan: Cementland maybe.
Eric: Sunset Park near where I grew up in North County. The river is magical there. One time we actually found this weird spell someone wrote out on notebook paper and hid under a rock.
Colin: The fields, alleyways, caves, mansions of our past imaginings!
Lucy: First you walk downtown and find the spot where the stone has been rubbed smooth, make a left. Take another left at the problematic symbol on the wall. Keep going until you can't look down anymore & YOU'RE THERE.

FL: If you were so inclined, whom would you form a tribute band in honor of?
Eric: I'm not...
Lucy: Butthole Surfers.
Colin: Tangerine Dream.
Ryan: B-52's.

FL: Best song ever written?
Lucy: The Sprawl.
Colin: "The music of long before returns in old age. It is sharp, gleaming, undiminished... and as wounding as a steel barb."
Ryan: Probably a song with a great melody, memorable hook, tight bridge, weird key change, and a sick coda.
Eric: Ryan's got the right idea on this one.



[posted 12.31.16]