#black gladiator

Bo Diddley

The Black Gladiator

@ 2012 Reissue - US Pressing

*****

It was four years between the release of Bo's last album of all-new cuts, 500% More Man, and this album, during which time he'd spent time recording with Chess' top bluesmen, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. The death of Leonard Chess in October of 1969 resulted in the sale of the label to the GRT corporation, and cost the company what little artistic guidance it had. The result was The Black Gladiator, an attempt to reshape Bo into a funk artist, in the manner of Sly and the Family Stone. 

The Monsieurs - photo by Simon Simard

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Trashy garage rock has been beaten into the proverbial dead horse for a while now. I’d say for so long that there should be a comeback any minute now. But there shouldn’t be. A few California labels or two have taken the pleasures of cheaply reverbed guitars, scraped yalps, and increasingly hard to make out Billy Childish reverence to incalculable numbers.

But the Monsieurs debut album on Slovenly / Black Gladiator whinnyed like a still sprightly, festering-hooves horse noticing someone coming at it with a club. I will now stop with the horse half-metaphors and skip to monsters.

If the Monsieurs cool debut was a late ‘60s B-movie zombie lurching and slapping at you, this second album, named, duh, DEUX, is a more sinister ‘70s B-slasher. Putrid, slushy, fast, then crunchy, it sometimes sorta sounds like the Pack might’ve written it, recorded it, and left it decomposing in a German basement ‘til the Monsieurs found it.

Yalper Andrew "California" Macbain took time out of his larceny 'n' libations schedule to answer some questions. Who knows, maybe the trashy garage rock horses are on the track?

I’m sorry.      

Was there ever a notion of calling the band The Mon-Sewers?

Good one. That is actually the correct pronunciation. I think we were gonna call it McDouble.

What's your opinion of bands who use “Thee” instead of “The”?

High. Very high. I think that bands who use the definite article “thee” before their name are obviously much fancier and more sophisticated than other non-thee bands. I think bands that use the common “the” before their names are boring and sad. Of course, this all just pertains to garage bands. Since we are a pop band, it wouldn’t make any sense for us to use “thee” before our name. That is just for stupid garage bands.

I feel like your first album was, not unlike the cover art beast, a kind of garage monster jumping around growling; and this DEUX sounds a bit sleazier, not unlike the front cover band shot.

I feel the first album had some more epic production on it. The new one was recorded faster and sounds more punk. Anyway, we’re saving all the good songs for our third album.

So you look at the cover of the new one, and the cover of the Puke Spit and Guts reissue (also on Slovenly, and quite gear!), and you sort of looks like you’re channeling the top hat dude in Puke Spit and Guts. Is there an influence there?

I doubt it. That idiot is probably channeling me. I mean, I’m the real deal. I live at my mom’s house. That guy is a like a college professor, now. Fuck him. I invented puke spit and guts. Seriously though, I’m sure he’s a wonderful person. Not channeling him, though.

Aside from leaving the crowd breathless, what is the most consistent thing that happens at Monsieurs shows?

I don’t know. The guitarist and drummer always take a million shits. I always get hurt cuz I’m fragile and people in the crowd are fucking animals.

“I Will Run,” “High School Star,” “At The Hop” – tell me whatever you want about those songs.

I call “I Will Run” our prog rock song cuz the opening riff sounds like Beethoven. “High School Star” is a song about school shootings. And “At the Hop” is not a cover. Sometimes people tell me that they love the cover of “At the Hop.” It’s not a fucking cover, you idiot. It’s an original song. Thanks, I wrote it.

Back to front – tell me how/when/where The Monsieurs began.

Usually my wife tells this story, but I’ll try to paraphrase.  My wife (before she was my wife) was a big fan of my old band, Tunnel of Love. TOL broke up, and I stopped doing music.  Anyway, she started coming around, gassing my head up, telling me I was a musical genius and that I had to start a new band because I was so great and music was what I was meant to do, blah, blah, blah. Anyways, so we started this band together. Now we both regret it.

What're the best / worst things about living in Brookline. MA?

I think the best thing about living in Brookline is knowing that you are better than everyone else. That’s a Brookline inside joke cuz Brookline is a town full of rich, entitled yuppies.

Where do you guys practice? Is there a good pizza joint nearby?  

At our practice space, you can actually make your own pizza if you like eating garbage can lids covered in mold and rat droppings.

with new album “Heaven Is No Fun” on Total Punk!

Hurrs an old one on Black Gladiator / Slovenly: slovenly.bandcamp.com