Hard Talk

The PB Army Interview

by Jonathan Mariante
November 2003

PB Army are a rockin' new band who have just released their first album, "Inebriates, Equivocators, and Mockers Of The Devil Himself". They describe themselves as "stoner pop metal". It sounds as if they've just invented their own (sub)genre of music, and it's a pretty hot sound! I recently had the chance to interview the PBoys, and here's what they had to say.

Q: "Inebriates..." is your first album. Are you pleased with how it turned out? Any favorite songs?

A: There's always something you wish you could do better, or do over, but I'm still amazed at how well it turned out. We hadn't been a band for long, and our bassist had literally joined three weeks before. We hadn't rehearsed because I'd been in Texas doing standup, our gear was falling apart...pick a reason, we had it covered. I honestly was just hoping we'd get some good demos of the songs, but once we got there and Randy Wilson (album's producer) got us going all the problems kinda just feel by the wayside. As for favorites, it seems to change day to day...sometimes the more "jammy" songs like "Acres of Tires" or "Costa Mesa". sometimes the quick, catchy ones like the first three. I do catch myself listening to it sometimes and I tend to go from start to finish. I think I'm still trying to figure out how we managed to pull it off!

Q: Could you tell us the history of PB Army, like how the band got started and all?

A: Micah (Shimborske), the guitarist, and I (drummer/singer Keith Bergman) started back in 2000 after a couple of years away from the whole "band thing". Driving back from a festival we'd attended, we were lamenting how we loved the whole "stoner rock" thing, the heavy Sabbath influence and huge grooves, but that so few bands really took that and wrote SONGS around it. Some people are obsessed with being the loudest, fastest, slowest, heaviest (whatever that even means anymore)-I think we're just more about writing a song that will stick with you. I was dead set against doing another band. Micah browbeat me into jamming in the basement a few times, and once the songs started coming together ("Circle The Wagons" was the first thing we wrote for this band) I got excited about it. We went through a couple of bassists before we ended up with Mahlon (Orrin, current bassist), but his stage presence and playing ability was the last piece of the puzzle we needed.

Q: You describe your sound as "stoner pop metal". Could you elaborate on that? What bands and artists have influenced you?

A: Well, it's stoner in the sense that we try for the big Sabbath/Kyuss grooves and riffs in some places, and it's metal because it's heavy (in the classic sense, not like we're trying to out-brutalize Deicide or something). And the pop just comes from wanting catchy choruses and good hooks. Influences are too many to count. I know everyone says that but we grew up on all kinds of music. My father had his arsenal of 8 tracks-Sabbath, Zappa, Pharaoh Sanders, Leon Redbone-and Micah's parents would be listening to Devo, Gary Numan, Donnie Iris, klezmer music. Even today, we're pretty wide open in our musical tastes, and we've got the full on record nerd CD collections to prove it.

Q: How did you come up with the title of your album?

A: I wish I had a better story than this, but I was sitting drunk at the bar after our worst show ever (so far, at least), on Halloween of 2000, and it just popped into my head. It's a little jokey, but it's definitely memorable, and I'm confident in saying that it wasn't already taken!

Q: What are your musical inspirations?

A: Musically, I couldn't tell you. We'll go for months without writing a thing, and then one day Micah will have a riff...usually when we don't even want to be at practice, or in the same room-and I'll hear him play it, and make him play it again, and then he comes up with a second part pretty much on the spot, and I start humming a melody line, and a couple of hours later we have a new song and all is right with the world again, Lyrically, I get a lot from personal experience, at lot of the "real" lyrics are kinda "notes to self" about past mistakes I've made, or seen others make, or just heavily edited stories about people I know. Or, sometimes, like on "Acres Of Tires", I just make up whacked out fictional nutjobs and sing about them.

Q: The cover of your album shows a painting of a girl kneeling in front of a guy and it looks like she's about to give him a blowjob! Pretty risque, even by today's standards! Where did that idea come from?

A: We saw it, we loved it, we had to have it! We've gotten a little flak, but not as much as I thought we would, over it. I personally think anyone who's offended by it is reading their own context into the picture. Part of what I like about it is the mystery. Is that some dude's wife? His girlfriend? She doesn't look real unhappy to be there, you know. Maybe he just returned the favor for the last 40 minutes! We don't know, if someone who sees that picture takes offense, they should start cleaning the stuff in their own dirty mind that made them jump to conclusions.

Q: Two of your members were in a band called Chicken Dog, who released one album. What's the story behind them? Is the Chicken Dog album still available?

A: Available? You want a crate of them? Chicken Dog was Micah's band in high school, and I joined when he moved to Toledo to attend college. The infamous "Rob Dog" Hayes was the vocalist-he couldn't sing a lick, but by the end of the first song, he's be practically naked, with the mic stuck down his dirty shorts, rolling around in broken glass (Ugh! That's gotta hurt!-Jon), screaming and spitting and kicking over equipment. Picture a cross between GG Allin, Billy Milano, Iggy Pop, and Baby Huey, and you're just about there. It was fun while it lasted, which was till about 98. At the time, our label had no distribution outside the city, and we didn't tour, so the CD sold zilch. We've got it on the PB Army site for seven bucks postpaid.

Q: You re-recorded a Chicken Dog song, "Keep It To Myself", for your debut. Why was that?

A: Honestly? Lack of material. That's the one song I wouldn't have put on the CD if we'd had another one ready to go. But since we've released the CD, a couple of people have told me it's their favorite, and wanna know why we buried it on side two, so to speak. Ya just never know.

Q: The band has done a lot of touring with famous bands, I understand. Any favorite road tales to tell? What band(s) did you enjoy playing with the most?

A: Man, so many good bands! Some of them, like Spirit Caravan and Place Of Skulls, I felt terrible because they came to town and played for almost no one. But regardless, it's an honor to be on stage with some of these bands. Clutch was probably the best as far as exposure and crowd size goes. For sheer fun, Leadfoot (Karl and Phil's band, from COC) takes the cake-we did four gigs with them last month and everything was firing on all cylinders. They kicked us in the ass to play more intensely, we sold more stuff, we had more fun. A beautiful experience.

Q: What do you think about today's music scene? Good points/bad points?

A: It's a strange time. As always, the good stuff is underground, and those who dig for the honest, passionate zines and web sites, and support the independent labels, will be rewarded with the best music. People complain about the Top 40 sucking, but what's new there? I mean, I tune out Britney Spears, my dad tuned out England Dan and John Ford Coley. Sure the crap is crappier, but the scum at the top of the pond has always been there. I think the things that are freaking everyone out now-file sharing, the splintering of genres-are going to lead to some seriously cool changes, as more people get hip to underground music and-I hope-start seeking e real, undownloadable experience by heading back out to the clubs again, to throw down and hoist a few drinks with us and other filthy hessians out there.

Q: What inspired you to become rock musicians? Who are your musical heroes you idolized as kids?

A: I can't speak for others, but I never really had a master plan. I do know that I wanted to play music after I first heard metal and punk. The first things I heard were the Ramones and Metallica, tapes I borrowed from kids at school, followed by Anthrax, Slayer, the usual suspects. I think I only ever got into drums because my best friend in high school already owned a guitar. I'd play along with Lars and Charlie Benante on my three piece Sears kit with no high hat (or try to, at least). Singing just came about by default, in this band, finally having the nuts to try and work at getting better at it. I think I have more musical heroes now than I did when I was growing up-seeing what artists have gone through, and the unorthodox lives they've led, for the sake of bringing their music to a world that usually doesn't notice, inspires me.

Q: What are your plans for the future? Second album? Touring?

A: We just got back from our second short southern tour, and we're regrouping, and finishing up some songs for the second album. Our plan is to have it out by spring 2004-we're very into the "one album a year" idea. We'll probably lay low till spring, "road test" the new songs regionally, then get the new CD out and plan our touring attack for next spring and summer.

Q: Any words of advice for all the would be rockers out there?

A: At some point, if you take the "serious musician" route of touring, recording, trying to get your music out there, you'll hit this wall of frustration where you think, "okay, I've paid my dues! I've done all I can possibly do! I've sacrificed like a motherfucker, I have EARNED it damn it!" That, right there, is square one, and 99% of the world throws in the towel right there. I dunno if being in that other 1% is really, really smart or really, really dumb, but if you take that route, we'll see you there.