INTERVIEW: Muffs
- Al Muzer
Frolicking in the streets of a decaying New Jersey shore town before a recent gig, Muffs vocalist/guitarist Kim Shattuck looks slightly out of place - yet strangely at home - amidst the broken glass, crumbling sidewalks and boarded up buildings.
While jeans, sneakers and t-shirt-clad bassist/vocalist Ronnie Barnett and drummer/vocalist Roy McDonald are clearly strangers in a strange land on streets that become dangerous after the sun goes down; Shattuck's long, skinny legs, white socks, girlish white dress, well-worn sweater and patent leather, Catholic school shoes don't draw half as much attention as you'd think they would on a Thursday afternoon in what's left of Asbury Park.
As she twirls herself around a rusting street sign, waves at a passing commuter train, makes faces at a baby in a carriage pushed by an ancient grandmother, or smiles at the toughs in low-riders cruising by, something in Shattuck's eyes - or, perhaps, in the way she carries herself - emits a "don't fuck with me" signal that makes three hoods who'd slowed down for a better look stop midway through their "hey, baby" routine, roll up their windows, and quickly drive away.
"Awww," chortles the hyperkinetic singer as she tosses her hair and crosses the road without bothering to look [hey, those cars'll stop]. "They must've just remembered, like, an appointment or something."
As Ronnie and Roy [who'd decided to wait until it was safe to cross the street] hurry to catch up to her, Shattuck yanks open the door of the club and strides purposefully toward the tiny stage at the front of the room.
Strapping on her guitar, she unleashes a distorted wad of feedback and a banshee-like howl as her bandmates pick up their instruments and break into a blistering, power-punk version of "Crush Me" from the group's third Warner/Reprise release, Happy Birthday To Me .
Static, humming and a loud buzzing noise suddenly fill the air as the group's sound guy frantically twiddles knobs and pushes buttons in a vain attempt to stop the ear-splitting noise.
The song tails off into a long, uncomfortable silence before Shattuck strikes another loud chord and the room is, once again, filled with a painful buzz.
"Maybe if you, like, turned your guitar down a little?" ventures someone in the back of the club.
"Turning down is NOT an option!" snaps the singer as she checks to make sure the volume controls on both her guitar and amplifier are at "10."
A few more ear-fracturing attempts by Shattuck and the sound man and a bit of fiddling around with wires and plugs precede the announcement that the guitarist has blown yet another Hi-Watt amp head (similar to the one used - without incident - by Pete Townshend, guitarist in the world's loudest band) and that sound-check would, understandably, be delayed.
Sipping a cup of coffee in the club's dressing room while things get fixed on-stage, Shattuck picks idly at a smiley-face bandage on her knee and reads the graffiti-covered walls.
"Oh, look!" she exclaims. "Lunachicks - Ween - Dash Rip Rock Oww!" Shattuck winces as the bandage pulls skin and stitches from her knee. "That really hurt!" she adds as she presses it back in place and looks for something else to do with her hands.
"That's for cutting my knee," Shattuck says as she reaches over and smacks (former boyfriend) Barnett in the arm.
"Me and Ronnie got into a big fight the other night," she explains, "we were kind'a comin' at each other physically and he ended up pushing me a little. I lost my balance and, blam! I slammed into the ground and cut myself on a sharp piece of wood. We've pushed each other around plenty before," Shattuck laughs, "but that's the first time anything like that's ever happened."
"I had to go to the hospital," she adds matter-of-factly. "It was, like, a possible Ike and Tina Turner situation in the making, but we're over it now."
"Well, maybe not quite over it," Barnett says quietly. "But, it'll pass. The two of us went out together for three years a long time ago."
"So, we generally know what will, and won't, set each other off," laughs Shattuck. "We mostly get along. Actually, it's really important for the band that we do get along.
"We've grown into a much friendlier relationship over the years," offers Barnett. "There's more give and take personally and as bandmates."
"I think the amount of time this lineup has spent together really paid off on the new record," Shattuck says with obvious pride of the group's outstanding, 15-song effort. "You can really hear it on every track - things are just 'on'."
"She's right," Barnett adds. "It really is a good record. It's probably the best thing any of us has ever done and, hopefully, it'll add a few new names to the mailing list and extend our careers another couple'a years. Someday," he laughs, "we may even get played on MTV."
"We've managed to outlive quite a few of the groups who were huge when we first started," he continues. "Which is kind'a weird. What's even stranger, however, is seeing our name used as a description in reviews and stuff. You know, 'a Muffs-y sound' or 'Muffs-influenced.' It's flattering, but really weird at the same time."
"I actually kind'a like the way our career has gone," reflects Shattuck. "We didn't flame out with a big, first album and then vanish. We've slowly, but surely, managed to build a great word-of-mouth following."
"I mean, we wouldn't have complained or turned it down if we were to've flamed early with, like, a Green Day-size hit," she laughs. "But, things just seem to've worked out much better for us this way. People know about us, people come to our shows, we get to play what we want to on our records and, apparently, there are at least a few people out there actually buying the things."
