King Khan And BBQ Show Don't Like Ketchup-Flavored Beer Or Moshing
Canadian doo-wop-punk duo King Khan & BBQ Show — which has recently switched back to its original moniker, The Bad News Boys — are back on the road after a brief hiatus, and have a new album in the works, set to be released on In The Red early next year.
Instead of going the usual route of dedicating a couple of paragraphs for an introduction or spending several sentences describing the sound with standard music journalism adjectives, I'd rather just advise you to do three things to better understand the combo of Arish Khan (King Khan) and Mark Sultan (BBQ Show):
1) Just look at the promotional picture above.
2) Imagine if Little Richard was really into the Killed By Death compilations.
3) Listen to the song "Tea Bag Party," the perfect representation of The Bad News Boys for those who have never heard anything from the pair.
Up to speed? Good. Here's how the interview went down:
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Has it been difficult getting the word out about the name change?
King Khan: No, I think people understand. I mean, it was our original name. We've never had to play by any traditional rules. We don't have a team of people behind us getting angry — whatever we wanna do, we're able to do.
Mark Sultan: I think the real fans understand that be it a real choice or a fake choice, it's still our choice.
You guys are playing a show on Halloween that coincides with the new Back from the Grave records coming out. How much of a role did the earlier editions play in the formulation of your guys' sound?
MS: When we were growing up we listened to a lot of Crypt Records stuff, especially the Back from the Grave comps. The Tim [Warren], the head of Crypt, became a really good friend of ours .... When we were in this band the Spaceshits we tried to get onto Crypt and he kind of made fun of us [laughs]. There was a handful of compilations that came out, like Hang It Out To Dry! was a big influence, Back from the Grave-
KK: Shakin' Fit!
MS: Shakin' Fit! We were exposed to all these things when we we younger, luckily. In Spaceshits, it helped form not only how our music stands, but I think kind of the ethos that we've chosen to run with. Just this real love of the music. You know, this kind of scraggly rock and roll punk stuff that we enjoy very much.
In the last ten years there has sorta been a "lo-fi" revolution with you two at the forefront. Do think what was once just a cost-efficient recording practice has turned into a genre of itself?
KK: We rely on our own harmony. For us, restrictions for what we have to deal with make us strive for more creative ways to come up with a big sound. I think people have always said that about us, how we sound like ten people. That's part of the soul and the talent thing that we have harnessed.
MS: We're able to extract the maximum amount of rock and roll from the limitations we restricted upon ourselves. I think bands that do it on purpose...it's kinda weird. I had a one-man-band at the time we first started, and so did Khan. It was more of a personal decision to have these one-man-bands years ago, not for financial reasons, more like to explore different kinds of sounds. And then when we got together we formed this band — and this band is more like the culmination of all those limitations put into one rock and roll band. It wasn't made for any other reason than to get a certain feeling. It's really amazing with the really primitive set of rules how much rock and roll can come out.
KK: It's like a big recipe. Sometimes you don't need too many things. I also remember we had a friend of ours in Brazil who played drums and he begged us to jam together with him on drums. And to be honest, having a normal drum set it really wipes away the magic sounds.
MS: That's why we write specific for this band. I think there are certain songs that wouldn't make sense in any other kind of way.
KK: That's why Quincy Phillips won't talk to us.
You guys did an Almighty Defenders thing recently?
KK: We did, we've been doing a little bit of Almighty Defenders every night.
MS: We have to learn on the spot during sound check these old songs that we haven't played together in years. But, man, it's so weird to see these kids who know that stuff and they freak out. We can conjure up a lot of weird energy, to kids especially. It's important to kids when they're young so they understand that not everything is prefab and plastic and manufactured.
KK: It's amazing to see a fetus with a King Khan and BBQ tattoo.
MS: Yeah, it's really strange.
What is your favorite and least-favorite thing about coming to Seattle?
MS: Hot dogs.
KK: Yeah, the hot dogs. But the last time I was in Seattle there was a little too much [inaudible] violence in the Capitol Hill area.
MS: The last time we played there the whole crowd was line dancing with devil sticks and hacky sacks. I found it kind of disheartening.
KK: I also think that the new tribal mustache tattoo [inaudible] is really unattractive.
[Laughs] I wanted to-
MS: I also don't like ketchup-flavored beer.
I wanted to do a Northwest word connotation quiz. So, say the first thing that comes to your minds when I say these Northwest terms...Number one is heroin.
MS: Hacky sack.
KK: Peanuts.
Microsoft.
MS: Juicy fruit.
KK: Rabies.
Sub Pop.
MS: I like them.
KK: Loser! [Laughs]
Evergreens.
MS: That sounds like a bad Sub Pop band.
KK: Pearl Jam.
Starbucks.
KK: Sperm.
MS: Gel.
Jack Endino.
MS: Collective Soul.
KK: Jack Endino? Who...uh...oh, Jack Endino. Flinstones!
MS: [Laughs]
Fill in the blank: When someone walks away from a Bad News Boys show, I want him or her to _____________.
MS: Wipe their a***.
KK: Inseminate.
MS: ...a wiped a**.
KK: [Laughs]
From the stage, what do you dislike more: people moshing to your songs or people standing still?
MS: Wow, that's seriously a good question.
[I do a fist pump]
MS: The moshing thing...for me, I don't like it. I'm not saying that there are girls that don't mosh, but essentially there will be a jock dude pushing out the female element, which we need. We need breasts, bouncing breasts, happy girls and smiles. The moshing thing interferes with the sexual element of our shows most of the time.
KK: But it's also the modern way of appreciating music.
MS: Right.
KK: So we don't want to be those old guys who go, "Ah, stop doing that hanky dance!"
MS: I will say though that stage diving has turned into some kind of really, terrible amusement park ride.
KK: It's a really bad experience for a lot of people, I've noticed. These idiots go up on stage — first of all, they stand up there for too long. But I remember back in the day when we used to go to punk shows, stage diving was a quick thing, you know, "Boom!" Now it's like, "Look at me, everyone!"
MS: I think the problem is that some people maybe want the world to be the internet. They think they're gonna have a moment to shine. If you come on our stage you're probably not going to shine. We're probably going to revert you in some way that you're not going to like.
KK: I'd like to see floor-punching come back into style.
[Laughs]
KK: Wait, I have a quick story about Nirvana, speaking of Seattle.
Go for it.
KK: They came to Montreal and toured for Bleach when I was a kid. It was me and my friends and there were like 20 people at the show. It was a great show, and then we went to go smoke with those guys upstairs and they were complete jerks.
Really?
KK: (long pause)....maybe, I don't know, that's my story.
MS: Standing still though, getting back to that whole thing...standing still is also problematic unless the person's entranced or something.
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The King Khan & BBQ Show perform Saturday, October 11 at the Crocodile with Ausmuteants and Thunderpussy. Tickets are available here.
-Chris Coyle, CBS Seattle
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