Girth Control – An Xperience Interview

Girth Control – An Xperience Interview – by Rob Smittix.

Girth Control stopped by the station to have a chat with me. We sat in the lobby and I first made sure that they we’re all usung coasters for their drinks. I must be getting soft because that’s something my wife would say. lol

We sat down for about 30 seconds and then Mark McKenna (Drums) suggests we do a beer run. Bob Watson (Bass), Jay Bonafide (Guitar) and I all agree on this brilliant idea. So we did just that! We stopped by a neighborhood bodega and picked ourselves up a 6 pack of Yuengling Black & Tan. Mark asks are we allowed to swear? I said go for it.

MM: This is a f**king delicious beverage!

RRX: (Laughs)

MM: We weren’t allowed to swear at our last interview, we couldn’t drink beer or have candy cigarettes either.

RRX: Yes we found some “Stallion” brand candy cigarettes at the bodega. I didn’t know that these were still around, I thought these were banned.

BW: I thought they were banned too.

MM: Light one up Bobby!

RRX: Yeah pass em around man. Everyone needs a candy cigarette.

Bob puts a candy cigarette to his lips.

MM: Oh yeah, you look kick ass.

Bob passes the pack to Jay.

JB: I’m trying to refrain.

MM: His parents might see this! You want one Rob?

RRX: Yeah of course man. I’m not trying to cut back or anything. Stallion these are like the Marlboros of candy cigs. So I’m at The River Street Beat Shop in Troy today and I found this little Flyer here that says. Girth Control’s Dorito Covered World Tour. You guys are nuts. What makes it Dorito covered?

MM: Everywhere we go we leave a trail of Dorito dust. We have a song called Dorito covered world on the new album. We had this idea for this rip off of the Sherwin Williams logo but with Doritos pouring over the earth. We said this is as good of a time as any to use that idea. There it is Dorito Covered World Tour, which of course the entire world is Albany and Buffalo.

RRX: Of course, Albany is the center of the universe.

JB: That makes Buffalo the West Coast.

RRX: So I gotta ask, Team Cool Ranch?

MM: I don’t want to speak for everybody but I have a very strong opinion on this. I’ll let you guys go first.

BW: I like the originals. Classic Nacho Cheese, yeah.

RRX: Really? (I’m kind of shocked)

JB: I’ve been converted, I was a Cool Ranch man for much of my life but I think I’m back around to the original, but… I actually like the purple bag the best.

MM: Dude, the purple bag is good. I never thought I’d stray from the original Nacho Cheese but… I almost never buy those anymore. I buy the dark red bag now, Spicy Nacho. They have just a little more flavor. The regular almost seems to mild to me now. Once you have the dark red bag it’s hard to go back.

BW: You’re on the hard stuff.

RRX: Should you be expecting for an endorsement?

MM: I hope so. Most things we either want an endorsement or a cease and desist. Those are our goals, one of the two. Either give it to us for free or tell us never to mention your product ever again.

JB: Just don’t ignore us.

MM: So either Doritos or Stallion Candy Cigarettes.

RRX: All the way! I had an endorsement once for a SNAPPLE commercial I did in high school and Jay’s Mom was my teacher, she’s the coolest, she wrote an article about me and got me known in the Ravena community.

JB: Awww, I bet she still has a copy. I’ll have to ask her. I forgot you’re a Ravena guy.

RRX: Well I don’t rep Ravena, I will always rep the South End of Albany but when you go to school there and the gangs want to kill you… I highly recommend you go to Ravena.

JB: Still a quiet little town, I think.

RRX: I don’t think they have gangs.

MM: Jay was probably the most bad ass guy there.

JB: It was a nice place to grow up, no beef with Ravena.

MM: I grew up in Duanesburg and I feel like a common misconception about people in more rural places or smaller communities is that they’re weird in a bad way but they’re actually mostly weird in a good way and mostly they just really want to do cool s**t  and not have anybody bother them. Which I get!

JB: At the end of the day, I think that we all just sort of landed in this weird punk rock bubble because of people that we met in high school. I met Chris Jordan (singer of Public Access/Slaughterhouse Chorus) and other bands that we play with… when I was in 5th grade or 6th grade. You meet these really important people that either stay in your life or they don’t but they have a big impact. For me it was all in little old Ravena, you find the pockets of people that are kind of like you and you grow from there.

RRX: When we were kids Ravena had a teen center and a bowling alley, now they have nothing for the youth. What are teen kids to do nowadays besides get into trouble or start smoking pot a little bit too early?

BW: Start a Ska-Punk band!

JB: Kept me out of trouble.

MM: All the kids out there, start your own Ska-Punk band, the world needs you!

RRX: So, you got the new album coming out. Tell us about it.

MM: We have our release show at Empire Underground March 1st. The album is called Life’s Too Short For Girth Control. It is in concept it’s a double LP. 25 songs, 45 minutes. We run the gamut from funny to… I don’t want to say serious but slightly more thoughtful. A lot of Ska-Punk but also a lot of weird left turns and things to keep it interesting. Our goal was to put out something that you could listen to all the way through that you would not really be able to guess what’s going to come next.

JB: It’s a double LP so we figured we got to pull out all of the stops. We brought in our old friends Chris and Matt from our old band Public Access to play horns. And then there was the opportunity to try everything weird that we’ve ever thought of. There’s ukuleles on this record, keyboards, steel drum…

MM: Weird little effects, weird interludes, cool funny sound bytes to make it work for 25 solid Girth Control songs.

Girth Control Record Release Party

w/s/g Do It With Malice (Buffalo), PWRUP (Western Mass) and Uncle Frank Says No (Albany)

Empire Underground  March 1st

Doors at 7pm/ Music at 7:30

$15 Advance/$20 At The Door

16+ or with guardian

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