Photo courtesy of Alan Snodgrass
For a band known for their incendiary live shows, it’s surprising Seattle-based punks The Drowns have not put out a live album before now.
Better late the never. And they chose a legendary stage to right that wrong, recording an airtight set at the Rebellion Festival last year, sharing a street punk’s dream bill with likeminded groups including Cock Sparrer, Sham 69, the Barstool Preachers and Stiff Little Fingers.
The record is out via Pirates Press on August 8, just in time for the group to make a triumphant return to the Rebellion Fest stage once again. The album is available on Eruption Marble Vinyl, Candy Corn Marble Vinyl, or Blood Red, and Halloween Orange Pinwheel Vinyl. It can also be streamed here.
New Noise Magazine spoke with Rev (singer/guitarist) about playing the Fest, why it took them so long to put out a live record, and why they proudly proclaim from the stage night after night that they are anti-fascist and anti-racist.
Congrats on the live record—It sounds fantastic. I was stoked to hear songs from some of your earliest releases here as well as the new ones. Was that a conscious decision?
I’m glad you dig it! We always wanted to try to capture the live show energy on record, and we feel like we definitely did with this. We also wanted the track listing to reflect the band’s entire chronology up to this point, so we tried to get a little of everything on there.
Are you surprised it took you this long to put out a live record? Are you glad you waited?
We’re not surprised necessarily. I feel like the timing has to be right to do something like this. We always wanted to and just happen to have all the stars align for this one.
Rebellion Fest is a big deal. What do you remember about that show?
We LOVE that festival, and so much so that we always demand to our agents that we get to hang out for the other days, instead of only being there for the day that we play, like most bands. That set specifically was on fire. The crowd was packed in and responsive. Everyone was there to party!
You guys are constantly touring—Why choose to record at Rebellion rather than, say, a local show in Seattle?
Seattle definitely would have been fun, and we might do that one day, but there’s an energy to the times we’ve played Rebellion that’s just electric, so we knew we had to capture it.
When you walk on stage, knowing this is going to be captured on wax forever, are you more cognizant of any mistakes you make when playing that show?
Absolutely not. If this band had a superpower, it would be turning the world off the moment we step onto the stage. We just go into stage mode and forget about the rest of the world for an hour. It was just another day at the office.
I love the Sweet cover you tacked onto this set. Had that been part of the live show before this show? Why that song?
We actually recorded a cover of that with our good friend Suzi Moon a few years ago, and we’ve just always loved that song. We are huge glam fans and think that song specifically has an energy in line with what we normally do.
Before you launch into “Them Rats,” you state the band has always been and will always be anti-fascist and anti-racist—something you state quite often from the stage. Can you talk a little about why that is so important—especially right now, given what we’re living through?
This band started as three friends with a massive love for The Clash. We’d be spitting on the grave of Joe Strummer if we didn’t use whatever size platform we have to address the absolutely disgusting and sad state of affairs that our country—and the world—is currently in. And unfortunately for all those “keep politics out of music” asshats, we’re never going to stop trying to change people’s minds for the better, so they can suck a butthole.
Like you, as a kid, I was drawn to punk rock because of the political message from bands like The Clash. Are you surprised that a generation later some music fans get offended that punk bands speak out vocally on issues like fascism, LQBTQ rights, etc.?
I will answer this question with 100% certainty, and no doubt in my mind. The reason those people get offended by things like that is a ruse. They don’t want to admit they have shitty thoughts that they know are selfish and offensive to certain groups of people, and they don’t want to be outed on those thoughts that they know are wrong, so they deflect with this BS.
What’s next for you guys?
Same ole, same ole. Massive amounts of touring. We also always are writing, so we are definitely gonna have a new album in the near future. No direct plans yet, but the world has definitely given us a lot to write about as of late, so it’s inevitable.
