Among the many and varied attractions at the Dixie Taverne’s “Earbleed Fest” (July 24 through 27) will be a performance by the New Orleans punk rock trio Die Rötzz on July 26. Drummer Paul Artigues explains that the name “doesn’t really mean anything. We were going to be called the Rots and we decided to just turn the ‘the’ into the German ‘Die’—we thought that would be more punk and more funny. It turned out to be Die Rötzz, which is like ‘extra death.’ You can’t get much better than that. The two z’s are like the Nazi SS sign backwards. We like to make fun of Nazis as much as we can. We have a few songs where we make fun of Hitler, Goebbels and all those people.”
Paul is not your usual 26-year-old punk, considering that he also trespasses into the world of the blues: “I play with an older blues guy named Guitar Lightning. We play old Delta blues and stuff like that. I’m playing blues but I still play faster than most other blues drummers play, with a little more intensity. It’s where I am right now. All the music that I’m playing has got a lot of intensity to it. I can’t say what the reason is. It’s not the drugs ’cause we all do downers. It’s not like we’re on coke or anything like that. It’s more fun to go out there and play a 30-minute set and end up like a dripping wet sponge than to go out and try and blow people away for an hour-and-a-half with bullshit.
“Going back, especially with me, and having access to four or five generations of recorded music, you go back and find what you really like. I really like a lot of Delta blues and things like that. I like raw emotion and feeling. Punk music was definitely that. The ’80s hair band music wasn’t, metal isn’t. Punk and really good blues is just emotion pouring out. It’s not so much about how loud or screechy it is—it’s about what you hear coming out of it. I don’t hear that emotion coming out of a lot of music today.”
When Paul is not pounding the drums with intensity, he’s scrambling eggs and concocting salads at Surrey’s Café and Juice Bar, where he’s the chief cook: “I’m not a quiet cook. I yell and scream a lot. People who work with me know I’m really obnoxious. I put positive energy into the food I cook. I definitely don’t put negative energy into the food I prepare unless I know who’s eating it and I hate them—that’s only happened like once or twice. I play drums a lot better than I make eggs.”
With fellow Rötzzers Andy Goceljak and Marvin Hirsch, Paul has recently completed the group’s first five-song CD, analyzed thusly by the drummer: “The words to ‘I Got My Bandana’ were written by Andy ’cause he grew up in New Jersey and it’s inspired by all the highway systems they have around New Jersey. He says that’s a great place to dump a body. It’s basically about gagging somebody with a bandana and dumping ’em someplace. ‘Tugboat’ was written by me and that’s from just seeing all the tugboats going up and down the river ’cause they’re like the biggest, strongest things I’ve ever seen. One of those things can push eight barges against the current and kick the river’s ass. ‘In Your Head’ is just a song about how great we are as a band and how when you hear us, we’ll always be in your head. ‘Nowhere’ is about how much we suck as a band and how we’re going absolutely nowhere. ‘What I Need’ is about lots of drugs and needing them and stuff like that.”
Stuff like that?! What does Paul’s mother think about her son’s music? “I played the CD for my mom today and she was really impressed actually. She said she didn’t think I wasted the last year of my life trying to put this stupid shit together.”
ROCKET’S RED GLARE
In honor of Independence Day, a large contingent of New Orleans musicians will perform at a free concert at Trinity Episcopal Church on July 3, commencing at 8 p.m. Organized by organist Albinas Prizgintas, the evening will include the Jimmy Maxwell Orchestra, the Trinity Choir and the Trinity Ensemble performing selections from Henry Purcell’s “Fairy Queen,” the New Orleans Trombone Choir (13 trombonists!), and pianists John Yarborough and Quinn Peeper tackling George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Prizgintas will also entertain independent souls with a selection of “patriotic organ music” including Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.” Wait a minute, Albinas, since when is that piece patriotic? With tongue somewhat in cheek, Prizgintas explains: “Well, in Apocalypse Now, that’s what they played when they were blowing up all the Vietnamese villages.”
KLEZMER ALLSTARS IN HOLLYWOOD
On Father’s Day, the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars performed at the 25th annual Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl, on a bill that featured Dave Brubeck, Roy Haynes, Al Jarreau and emcee Bill Cosby. According to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, jazz music and bare-breasted women were the two major components in his assault on American Puritanism: “I saw in jazz the fact that it was anti-establishment music. It came out of New Orleans and had a black connection that wasn’t entirely acceptable in polite society.”
COCKTAIL HOUR
Two new joints dedicated to intoxication have recently opened. Shiloh (4529 Tchoupitoulas), formerly known as Club Finesse and co-owned by OffBeat contributor James Bailey, guarantees “premium vices at dive bar prices.” The slightly more upscale Delachaise (3442 St. Charles Avenue) is the latest venture of WTUL deejay and New Orleans native C. Colby Spath. Colby, in my estimation, is responsible for the most perfect Cosmopolitan these scorched lips have ever tasted.
A TOMB FOR MUSICIANS
Many tragedies befall New Orleans musicians, including the problem of dying and having nowhere to stick one’s earthly remains. To the rescue come the Friends of New Orleans Cemeteries, an organization that is restoring a historic tomb in St. Louis Cemetery #2 for the purpose of providing free burial space for deceased musicians.
On July 13, at Mid-City Lanes, the Friends are staging a benefit concert to raise money for the New Orleans Musicians’ Tomb featuring James Andrews, Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes, Harold Brown, Davell Crawford, Rockin’ Dopsie, Jr., Clarence “Frogman” Henry, Al “Carnival Time” Johnson, Oliver “Who Shot the La La” Morgan, Tony Owens, Guitar Slim, Jr., Marva Wright, Lloyd Washington, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Gennifer Flowers (author of Passion and Betrayal and former associate of saxophonist/President Bill Clinton) and, given that Antoinette K-Doe is in charge of booking the talent, the wax mannequin of her late husband will also be in attendance. For further information concerning the Musicians’ Tomb, contact Rob Florence at 949-2785. Any musicians wishing to perform should consult with Ms. K-Doe at 947-1078.
SURF CITY
In “Third Stone from the Sun,” Jimi Hendrix uttered his infamous remark “You’ll never hear surf music again.” Well, Jimi was wrong about lots of things, especially surf music, as evidenced by Sundazed Records’ new three-volume set entitled Lost Legends of Surf Guitar. Each disc contains 20 reverb-heavy selections, including such bizarre numbers as the Challengers’ “Satan’s Theme,” the Fabulous Playboys’ “Shortnin’ Bread,” the New Dimensions’ “Chicky Run” and the Tandems’ “Beyond The Surf.” After listening to all 60 songs, I am astounded by how this music sounds like it was created by a single band: every guitarist employs the same twangy riffs and every drummer indulges in the same “Wipe Out!”-style rhythm. No wonder the English Invasion was so successful—every American band of the era just wanted to be the Ventures!
BABY’S ON FIRE
Quintron’s live shows are always incendiary, but at his recent recital, while on tour with the Cramps, at the venerable Fillmore in San Francisco, Q. took the blazing bit literally and set one of his Drum Buddies on fire with gunpowder. The promoter, understandably flame-shy after the Rhode Island heavy metal nightclub disaster, declared that Quintron would “never play in San Francisco again or at any Clear Channel venue in the country.” Nevertheless, the White Stripes hired Q. and Miss Pussycat as the opening act for a series of late June dates. On the Fourth of July, the Ninth Ward’s dynamic duo performs with San Diego’s underground antagonists the Locust at the Lion’s Club in Gulfport, also accompanied by two additional killer ensembles, Kill Me Tomorrow and Toys That Kill.
