It’s time for the newest installment of Discography Biography- POW’s monthly look into the mind, and the record collection of a various musician. For those who missed our inaugural feature, here’s a quick rundown:
As any music lover knows, there’s a huge difference between “desert island discs”, favorite records, most influential records, etc. The ones that interest me the most are the ones that are the most personal- the albums that define who you are, the ones that could be called the soundtrack of your life. Every month here on POW, I’ll be talking to a different musician about the top 3 albums that make up what I’ve affectionately titled their “Discography Biography”.
This month POW’s talking to Emmett O’Connor. Emmett is the drummer for wild, “hi-fi organ punk” duo Archie & The Bunkers out of Cleveland, OH. Consisting of Emmett and his brother Cullen (on keys), Archie & The Bunkers exploded onto the scene when the boys were in just their early teens, and have since shared stages with the likes of The Damned, Iggy Pop, and The Dead Boys. This April they released their sophomore album Songs From The Lodge, along with an EP of masterful Damned cover tunes, they’re currently prepping for their next European tour….and they’re still not old enough to drink yet. I managed to snag some time on a Saturday evening in Emmett’s busy schedule to talk to him about what 3 album’s make up his discography biography:
Emmett O’Connor
Alright, so I guess we should get into this then….so were you able to actually narrow it down to three?
“Yeeeahhhh, as long as its noted that its pretty broad, and I’m just kind of chronicling different albums throughout um….ya know, like I can’t pick a top three but I can kinda pick different albums that I can really enjoy and what they opened up for me and what not.”
Well yeah, I think that’s good, fair enough-
“So I’ll start it off with when I was 12 or 13 I started to get into punk rock and the first punk rock album that I was introduced to and really stuck with me was the Agent Orange album Living In Darkness. It’s on Posh Boy, and its, 80s Orange County punk rock band, still around. The first punk show I ever went to see. I got to see them play and they were opening for The Queers, and it was really fun and that album has been a big inspiration on me from the very beginning”
Agent Orange’s Living In Darkness
So with that album, what is it about it that drew you so much to it when you first heard it?
“Ummm…well it was kind of my first taste of really getting some raw energy rock n roll that like, I started to realize it as something of its own entity. I started to kind of understand what rock n roll was, what punk rock was…”
So when did you get to see them, was it around that same age you first heard them?
“Yeah, I saw them when I was 13. And seeing them was a really cool thing because it was the first punk rock show I’d ever been to and kind of the first punk band I ever listened to. And they did cool surf instrumental covers, like they covered “Pipeline” and “Miserlou” and “Mr. Moto”, stuff like that. And then during that time, the lyrics reallly spoke to me as well, there’s some really good songs and I related to the words…”Everything Turns Grey”, “Too Young to Die”, “Living in Darkness”…I felt all that stuff. So I related to a lot of the words…cuz the words weren’t like, although those songs are very ominous and stuff, the words were extremely thought out and they were really intelligent even at the time and now. They’re not your typical “smash everything” kind of songs. They’re intelligent lyrics.”
So does the album still mean the same now as it did then, like, do you still dig it just as much or have your feelings changed?
“Its one of those records that I still feel the same way when I listen to it and I can still relate to it after all this time, that’s why I picked it. Because I can still…I still listen to it. There’s some albums ya know that you listen to a lot growing up or you listen to a lot during a period of your life and you kind of, you don’t grow out of it or become sick of it, but it just becomes something that you put on the back burner. That album I never put on the back burner, its just a great record.”
Good, then I think it was probably a good one to start with!
“Yeah, yeah that was the first one I came up with cuz I was like, ‘Where can I say everything kinda started?’ And I think I can kind of, I can pretty safely say, that that’s where it all started for me was with that album. ”
Are there any songs you’d change, or anything about the album that you’d change at all?
“Hmmmmm…..I don’t think so actually. It’s a 15 song album, there’s not a song I would take off. Yeah, it’s great.”
Okay, so let’s move on, let’s go to your second pick…
“Okayyyyy ummm, I know what I’m gonna do for my third pick…..”
*laughter*
“Don’t worry I thought this out, I’m just deciding between 2 right now….”
That’s okay!
“I know you’re a busy girl, and I don’t wanna-“
No, you’re fine! I sort of like torturing people by making them choose just 3…
“Yeah, when you said that I was like, “You’re rude’……ya know, it’s worse when people ask like, when you talk to people and say ‘Yeah I’m into music’ or whatever and someone’s like ‘Oh what’s your favorite band?’…it’s like, ‘I wanna kill you…’
Oh god, yeah…
“Okay. I wanna say……ummmmm….I’m gonna pick a drumming album. One that influenced my drumming a lot. Max Roach- Members, Don’t Git Weary. It’s a jazz album, on Atlantic records. I
Max Roach’s Members Don’t Git Weary
only bought a physical copy of the album about a year, maybe a year and a half ago. Max Roach is one of my all time favorite drummers. And, he’s the drummer that kind of spoke to me in a way that the drums can be, they can really be, like you can make music on drums. Ya know, cuz in rock and roll, and it’s evident in my playing a little bit but like, rock n roll drumming for the most part, and that’s how it should be, is to keep the rhythm and be primitive. But I feel like I, when it comes to drumming there’s that edge in how I like to play cuz the drummers that influenced me the most, they’re all jazz drummers. Like with the exception of maybe Rat Scabies and Keith Moon, just because they were absolutely insane and just all energy, just insane amazing drummers. But Max Roach is my favorite drummer and that album is kind of a landmark cuz it really opened up my mind more about what I could do with the drummers while still being primitive.”
That’s really interesting, I think people might be surprised with that pick.
“Yeah, people are usually surprised when they’ll ask for music and I’ll like, cuz a lot of people think our music is all about the garage rock, and like, I love garage rock don’t get me wrong, but I don’t listen to that much garage rock. If I pick older music, I’m usually listening to doo-wop and people are usually surprised when I tell them that. I got nothin against The Sonics or The Wailers or whatever, but ya know, I listen to the oldies probably more than any of that.”
I think it makes sense, what you were saying about the drums not necessarily always having to be rhythm. Especially because you’re just a two-piece, with you and your brother, you’re able to create a sound that sounds bigger by the way that you play-
“Yeah, and there’s also a sense that….ya know, in rock n roll, especially if you look at like prog rock or something, there are people who……there are a lot of times in that kind of music where you lose that kind of raw edge. And I feel like in jazz, like jazz has a lot of the top talented drummers like Art Blakey and Max Roach and whatnot but they kept it raw like rock n roll did. They kept their music really raw, and stripped back even though its mega complex there’s still this raw energy that comes from the music. And you hear that in an album like Members, Don’t Git Weary. It’s like they’re channeling the same raw energy in a completely different way that you kind of, you lose when you listen to Rush. Not that those guys aren’t talented, but-”
No, I totally understand. It’s when it’s too overdone.
“Yeah its like, you listen to a Miles Davis record and its like….holy cow, that’s intense. You listen to a Sonics record, or a Chantelles record and you feel the same energy from it. It just was kind of a bridge…bridging the gap because I love jazz, I’m a big jazz nut. I’d say that’s about it for that. That, that’s all I can say boring you with the jazz for POW Magazine….”
No no no! You’re totally allowed to, I think that’s what people find the most interesting is all this background stuff, ya know? And I think it’s really cool actually, finding out what sort of led you to where you’re at now.
“Yeah…”
Okay. So you said you had your third pick like completely solid, right?
“Oh yeah, I got that one! This is more recent. Again, its just kind of the musical direction I’m going in right now. Me, as well as my brother, we’re both Iggy Pop freaks. Like, we love all his stuff so much, like we’re dialed in, huge Iggy Pop fans. But, recently we’ve been listening to Kill City a LOT. And, that will be my third pick. I didn’t start getting into it until recently, it was just kind of an album that I kind of passed up and didn’t really think about that much because of just the way your musical journey zigs and zags all over the place. But, we got to that record and we were like ‘what have we been missing?’ Its SO insanely good. And as far as our creativity aspect, we are listening to this and trying to soak up this album as much as possible and we love the saxophone on it, we love the piano on it, it’s just a masterpiece.”
So you said it wasn’t something that you had been into until recently?
Iggy Pop’s Kill City
“Yeah, it was just one of those things it just, like I knew about the album and I guess I had heard little bits of it here and there but it just didn’t stick. But I think my brother was the one who was like ‘you should reallllly listen to this record’ and we were just like ‘whoa, how did we miss this? Like, this is really good’. And then we were both at a record store, out in the middle of nowhere, and we both found copies of it. He pulled out an original copy, green vinyl, for 15 bucks and I was like ‘ahhh dude’ and I was really jealous and then literally 5 minutes later as I was diggin through I pull out an original press, green vinyl, for 12 bucks. So we both got it on the same day after listening to it online for a really long time. It’s just a really raw, good rock n roll record.”
Are there any particular tracks that you’ve been into more than others?
“Yes. Yes. “Sell your Love”, “Beyond the Law”….pretty much the whole first side. Like it’s all good, the whole album is amazing. But I love the second, third and fourth song- the whole record’s great. But the first side is so intense….the second side is too. I guess I can’t really play favorites on that record.”
*laughter*
“I could give you my favorite tracks from the other two too if you want….”
Yeah, let’s go back to the Agent Orange record-
“Ummmmmm “Everything Turns Gray”, “No Such Thing”, “Cry for Help In A World Gone Mad”, “Living in Darkness”…”
Okay.
“And then on the Max Roach record…….do you want 2 or 3 favorites?”
You can pick however many you want!
“Alright, my favorites on that record are “Effi”, “Equipoise”, and “Absolution”.”
Okay. Now. Is there anything about any of these three records that you would change at all?
“That I would CHANGE?!?”
Yeah!
“I don’t feel like I…..whats the word I’m lookin for…I don’t feel like I would have the right to say that! I don’t think Id feel like I have a right to critique a record its all about the artist and how they did it, I think all these records are pretty darn good-”
Well, I would hope so, cuz they’re the ones you chose….
*laughter*
Okay, so someone who didn’t know you at all, like if we just told them what your top 3 choices were, do you think it’d give them a pretty good insight into who you are, and who you are musically too?
“Ummm….it would definitely show that I have extremely diverse taste in music. And I would say that’s the truth. And they probably would just look at me like I’m crazy, ya know if it was just somebody who didn’t know a lot about music they probably wouldn’t know what I was talking about anyways. .”
**Sheena & Emmett go on a music snobbish rant about how most people don’t know anything about music**
So obviously all of this has had an impact on the type of music that you play, and the kind of music that you write….where do you think it shows the most? Lyrically, or in the style of your drumming, or just overall….?
“I would say all of it reflects in a lot of different ways. Pretty much in every way. Ya know, we get our inspiration mostly from the music we listen to so it definitely does influence the way that I play and the things I write. And I would say the same thing for what my brother listens, it’s very clear with the stuff that he’s interested in as far as organ goes, his influences are very prevalent in the way he plays. But he makes it his own, and its really impressive how his creative style- he can take things that are very very different from one another, and you can hear it in his music, and he does a really great job of making it all come together.”
Archie & The Bunkers Play The Damned
Now, would your brother approve of your choices that you chose? Since you’re basically representing the band with this, is he gonna be okay with it?
“Oh, he’ll tell you, well he’ll agree on Kill City, and he’ll probably say- *imitates his brother* ‘I hate jazz’, which isn’t true-
*laughing*
“-because if it wasn’t for Jimmy Smith we would’nt be a band right now. But, *imitating his brother again* “I hate jazz, it all sounds the same”… he’d tell ya that. And Agent Orange, he’d probably be like, ya know even though he likes them too, he’d go *imitating his brother* “…and Agent Orange sucks!”.”
*both laughing*
“Now that would be what he would tell ME, I don’t know if he would tell you that, but that’s what he would tell me.”
Awwwww.
“Nah, he’s fine.”
So I know I made you narrow it down to just three, are there any honorable mentions that you want to say, the ones that you had a hard time deciding between?
“Sure, I could do that. Honorable mentions. I didn’t want to say…ya know, there are ones that I didn’t want to say, because they’re what everybody says, and even though they are….like, Velvet Underground and Nico. Like, of course that’s a major…and The Stooges, the 2 Stooges records, like those are HUGE things that influenced me. But those are things that like, those are things that when everybody hears them they’re like oh my gosh, ya know? Ummmm….I’m trying to think of some good ones….The Doors……hmmmmm. Dangit. I didn’t prepare the honorable mentions! There’s a lot of….oh you know what? Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Now I Got Worry”
Okay.
“I know you probably don’t wanna hear that one…”
Oh whatever, it’s no big deal.
“Oh you know what, I’m gonna change that, it’s gonna be another Jon Spencer pick- The first 12 inch EP. What’s it called….oh yeah, Groovy Hate…um….Fuck. That’s what its called. When I heard that, that’s the most angry record I’ve ever heard and when I heard it, I related to it and its the greatest thing ever.”
Why do you relate so much to all this angry stuff??
“Cuz I’m an angry person!”
Clearly! Gosh! *laughter*
“Oh! You know what there’s another honorable mention, you have to put two..”
Yes?
“The first Oingo Boingo record. Only a Lad. And then that’s all. I gotta stop looking through my records or I’m gonna come up with more. I won’t harass you with other records I wanna add-”
You damn rock stars! You’re so picky about things.
“It’s called being a music nerd, that’s why I’m picky about things, it has nothing to do with even playing music. Its just I like a lot of music so I hear a lot of records, and then I own a lot of records and then I have no money….”
Just a portion of Emmett’s personal collection
Well, let’s see….I think we basically covered everything. Do you wanna talk a little about whats going on with Archie & The Bunkers? I know you guys have a new album out, and you’re gonna be touring soon…
“Yeah, the record [Songs From The Lodge] came out in April, and we’re gonna tour….we’re opening for The Dead Boys June 29th at The Beachland Ballroom, and then we’re going to go to Europe in mid-August and we’ll be back the day after my birthday, September 9th. Anyways, I’m trying to think if there’s anything else….”
Ummmm when are you coming out to the west coast?
“Ummmmmm…..when they’ll pay us to.”
Listen to a playlist of all Emmett’s Discography Biography picks:
