Your Music Magazine

Larry and his Flask are:
Ian Cook: Vocals + Guitar
Jamin Marshall: Vocals + Percussion
Jeshua (Jesse) Marshall: Vocals + Double Bass + Baritone + Harmonicas
Dallin Bulkley: Vocals + Guitar + Not Guilty
Andrew Carew: Vocals + Banjo + Trombone
Kirk Skatvold: Vocals + Mandolin +Trumpet

By Itay K

Sometime last year a couple of friends and fellow vinyl junkies handed me a 7" by Larry and his Flask, a band from central Oregon that they had seen open for Dropkick Murphy's in southern California. As a huge bluegrass fan, I was more than pleasantly surprised when I put the needle down. A fast-paced blend of bluegrass, rockabilly and punk rock, their sound was intoxicating. When I noticed they were slotted for Warped Tour this year, I had to go. Now, as bad-ass as the band sounds on record, nothing compares to their live show. It's been a long time since a band has truly entertained me from start to finish. Larry and his Flask are like a tornado of frenetic energy on stage, jumping into the crowd with instruments in hand, they know how to get a crowd worked up. At one point during their set, they successfully instigated a rabid fan to crowd-surf on top of another crowd-surfer like a surfboard. Finishing their set acoustically amongst the massive audience that had accumulated during their set, I overheard people around me praising what they had just seen, many saying that it had been their favorite performance of the day. I have to agree. With performances like those on Warped Tour, Larry and his Flask are just a short step from "blowing the fuck up" as they say.

What's the origin of your band name?
Jamin: Larry and his Flask? I can't disclose that information. No, we get that question a lot. It started a long, long time ago on Halloween. It was like my alter-ego - Larry, the dirty janitor. There is no Larry in the band. It's a myth, folklore really.
Jesse: He's someone to blame for all the bad shit.
Andrew: When you misbehave.
Kirk: Everyone's got a little Larry in 'em.
Andrew: My Larry's just wearing off this morning.

Is this your first time out on Warped Tour? What are your thoughts so far?
Jamin: Yes indeed. It's awesome.
Jesse: It's a traveling circus… We've done lots and lots of national touring, opening up for bands like Dropkick Murphy's and Streetlight Manifesto -
Jamin: But we've never done the Warped Tour and it's crazy and awesome. It's just nonstop.
Jesse: Nothing else like it.
Andrew: It's astonishing to see so many bands traveling all at once.
Kirk: Some days you wake up and you're like 'I'm not feeling it today, this is crazy'… and then you get in there and everyone's running through the gate. They just won't let you feel like that. You're pushed every day by the people that show up.
Jesse: 15,000 kids just stoked to see all these bands.
Jamin: Screaming and running and… There are some really good bands.

Who are some of your favorites on the tour?
Jesse: The Aggrolites, Foxy Shazam, Lionize…
Jamin: Bad Rabbits are awesome too. Funky soul and choreography - you've gotta go for that.

You guys just finished playing an impromptu acoustic set amongst the crowds out here - is that something you guys do often?
Jamin: Yeah, that's all we're slotted to do on Warped Tour this year, but we did get the opportunity to play on a stage and we're playing again today on a stage, but we went into it thinking and knowing that most of what we were going to be doing is just playing a bunch all over the fairgrounds or whatever.
Andrew: Roaming around ambushing people with music. It's a good advantage too, because we're not just subject to 30 minutes on a stage.
Jesse: We can play as much as we physically can play.
Jamin: Which, in the heat usually isn't very much, but -
Andrew: It's like four sets a day.

Your debut album is about to be released… How long did you guys work on it?
Jesse: Yes… finally! We recorded it in about six days, but it took three years -
Jamin: To get the money and the time to put it out…
Andrew: We've been touring so much -
Jamin: Yeah, we were on big tours like with Dropkick Murphy's and we didn't have a CD.
Andrew: People would come to the merch table wanting a CD and we'd say -
Jamin: We don't have one!
Kirk: We've got a t-shirt or bandana though…
Jamin: It was driving our merch girl fucking crazy, so we finally have something out.
Kirk: She pushed us.
Andrew: We finally put it out digitally. It's on iTunes right now. We only have the hard copies on this tour.
Jesse: You've got to come to Warped Tour to get the hard copy until August 9th when you can get it in stores all over the US as well as online.
Andrew: We're quite proud of it.
Jamin: We're working with Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club.
Jesse: They're based out of San Francisco. Awesome label

Who are some of your band's musical influences?
Jamin: Everything from hardcore, ghetto, gangsta rap to jazz to space rock…
Andrew: We have a lot of influences…
Jesse: Certainly, don't forget Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, and all the bluegrass legends…

Is it difficult bringing your type of sound to a venue such as Warped Tour, with all of its hardcore and emo-metal bands?
Jesse: You'd think so, but it works to an advantage because there are so many bands in the same genre, you know, there's 20 bands that sound the same. We're the only band on Warped Tour that has a banjo, a mandolin -
Jamin: And a standup bass!

What are your plans after Warped Tour?
Jesse: We're gonna' take a month off and just relax and then we hit the road again to go out and play RiotFest in Philly and Chicago, the Fest in Florida - We're just making a whole tour out of it and then going through Canada on the way home.
Jamin: And then we have a show out in Boston, then Hawaii, then Europe.

I had the privilege of seeing Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band live a few times last year - in both stadium and small club settings. Their unique old-timey brand of southern-fried blues is intoxicating and I’d recommend that next time they play your area, you go on out and see ‘em. I caught up with the Reverend himself at Moe’s Alley in Santa Cruz on the last leg of their 2010 West Coast tour...

Interview by Itay K.

I hear you had some issues getting here...
Had some van trouble, but we made it work. Our tour manager had to get under and basically hotwire the van with a pocketknife. We drove from Petaluma to here in Santa Cruz in second gear going 35-40 mph the whole way.

How have the rest of the dates on this tour been?
They’ve been great. You know, it’s tour, man. Some days are better than others but the beauty of it is that you’re on tour. You’re playing music for people. It’s kind of like a bad day fishing; even a bad day fishing is good.

How different is it coming off of Warped Tour and playing smaller venues?
It’s definitely different, especially when we go back to 21 and up venues.

What was the response like on Warped Tour?
There’s crazy kids moshing and crowd surfing and going nuts. It was awesome. I loved it. We made such good friends and we got to see some of our old pals like Kevin Lyman, the guy who puts on Warped Tour. I really like him.

Any bands you where digging out there?
Yeah, one of my favorites to see live was Pennywise. They invited me to play with them a whole bunch too, so I got to sit in with ‘em. Reel Big Fish and Andrew W K; The Casualties... You know what band I really liked that I didn’t think I would was The Pretty Reckless; Taylor Momsen’s band. She’s on that TV show Gossip Girl. We liked hanging out with them and I really liked her band. They kind of remind me of Joan Jett or something. Pretty cool.

So you’re into a lot of different styles of music…
I like good songs, and that’s the main thing. It has to start there. If you ain’t got good songs then go back to the woodshed and practice ‘til you do. There’s a lot of good pickers out there and singers, but the hardest thing to do is to write a good song.

Where does your inspiration come from?
I think that the best songs are from the heart, true songs. So I write songs about my family and friends, things that happen to me, things I like, and things that piss me off.

Your new album The Wages has been out for a little while. Do you find time to write songs on the road?
A little bit. You know, I come up with lots of melodies on the road but I don’t really finish songs until I’m at home. It takes time to really focus on it. Lately, I’ve been saying that I love being on the road and I love being at home, so I’m never satisfied.

You have quite a collection of guitars there on stage. How long has it taken you to compile this collection? Is it a passion for you?
My whole life. I’ve never been a collector of instruments in the way that some guys collect them and like looking at them. I’m a collector of things I like to play. For me, it’s all about finding an instrument that feels right, that smells right, that looks right and sounds right. I’ve got a pretty good collection that allows me to make the music that I want to make.

I hear you’ve started picking at a banjo on the road...
I’ve had a five string banjo for a long time, but I’ve been writing a lot more on it. Maybe I’ll break it out one of these days. Maybe the next record we’ll have some five string banjo pickin’ on there. We’ll see...

Who inspired you to pick up a guitar?
Lots of people. My dad got me started playing. What really changed my life was hearing Charlie Patton for the first time. When I heard him, I just felt like a new standard had to be reached. Not enough people know who he was. He was the first professional Blues musician. He recorded his first album in 1929, 10 years before Robert Johnson started recording. It’s old stuff and the recordings are harsh and they’re hard to listen to.

Do you see a change in the direction of music nowadays?
There is something happening right now which I think is pretty sad. You know, there’s recorded music and there’s live music and these are two different things, especially nowadays, and that’s fine. I don’t want to pretend like we live in a world where there’s no computers and stuff; That’s the world we live in now. But, when you go see a band play live, I think they outta be playing live. There’s this thing happening now where people are up there pretending to play, pretending to sing and most of the music is coming out of a laptop or an iPod. Like this one band we played with recently; They had background vocals coming out of their computer, they had rhythm guitar, drum and bass tracks...extra stuff. On top of them playing. And they’re like “Well, we can’t do all that stuff on stage.” Well then, hire people! Hire musicians... or just don’t do it. You have your recorded song and your live song. I think when people pay good money to see you play live, you outta be playing live. Otherwise, you’re cheatin’. It’s no different than an athlete using steroids. It’s no different than a politician lying.