Gutter Punk

Notorious punk rockers Guttermouth will be rolling into town this weekend to delight fans with their in-yer-face brand of independent punk rock. The boys from the band have been touring in support of their new album, Gorgeous, out now on Nitro Records. I recently got a chance to have a sit-down (over the phone) with Guttermouth frontman and all around nice guy, Mark Adkins. Here’s how it went down:

Yeah, we were supporting the Offspring there.

It’s nice playing for 10 thousand people a night. We did 13 shows over there.

About six months a year we’re gone. We just love getting out and playing. I’ve been home for like three weeks and I’m losing my mind. There is just nothing to do. I’m just sitting around all day. And, of course, I don’t want to get a job. Don’t want a job. Still, I got to find something to do with my time.

Well, I go skate a fair bit. But all my friends are in school or working during the day. The other guys in the band got, like their lives going. You know, wives and kids and all that crap. My situation is, I’m single. I’ve got nothing to do. I hate children. At least my roommate is home today so I’ve got somebody to talk to.

No. I watch a fair bit of TV, but not the soaps. Living without cable right now would be a nightmare.

Well, it varies every night. You never know what’s going to happen. Some nights you get a good crowd. We kind of feed off of the crowd, and they do the same with us. Sometimes you just click. Both things just click and interesting stuff happens. You just never know what’s gonna go down. There’s always the chance that you’ll get a dead crowd, like in Oklahoma, or something. Because they don’t understand English practically. All that inbreeding kind of makes for a weird show.

That was nice. We like going places where there are wagers and all-night bars.

No. Actually, I don’t think I knew at the time. I’m the last to know everything. I never know anything but I’m the first one to do interviews on the phone. The rest of the band probably knew about the Chico show. They know me so they can just say, "Mark, you’ve got to play tomorrow in Chico," and I’ll just say "Okay, let’s go." Pack a bag and I’m out. That’s pretty much how I live at the moment. "Hey, you’re going to Australia in a week. Get ready."

Assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer.

I was accused of that. My speech was allegedly assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon. It didn’t even go to court. It was a total crock of shit. They totally trumped up charges to shut down our show. It was so bizarre. I couldn’t believe that they could completely fabricate charges.

I know. When you’re in that position, and then they take you to jail, it’s pretty fucking scary. You’re just like, "Oh, my God." The police report basically said that I had a gun. I don’t even own a gun. I’m not into guns. But the report actually said I had a gun. I have the police report, it’s bizarre. My attorney was like, "They’re not going to produce the weapon, right," and I was like, "No!" So they told me not to sweat it, but it’s fucked up. I hate to use the "system" word, but it really is fucked. I was a victim!

I believe there’s a blatant disregard for political correctness in all the members’ lives. It’s fucking retarded. You know the Maximum Rock’n’Roll magazine? That’s the bible for everything we’re against. Everything they preach about, we go the other way. That actually goes back to our very first record when some of their reviewers, who worked there at the time, actually called my house. They dug up my phone number somehow, and they were questioning me about every single song on the record.

Yeah. They were all, "What the hell is your problem?" They were cussing at me and stuff. I just told them to fuck off and to not review the album or to trash it. Whatever. Just stay up in your little San Francisco and never leave and you’ll have a perfect life.

Nope. Me neither. I’ve actually been in fist fights with those people because our diets weren’t the same. It’s like they have to justify themselves as people who don’t eat meat. I was actually attacked at a show in Florida by a guy who worked for this band Earth Crisis. We were kind of making fun of this vegetarian kid in the audience and this guy took it to heart. He really took it to heart. And he was sticking up for carrots and radishes and stuff like that. He took a swing at me and hit me right in the face and we got in a big fight right on stage. All because our diets were different. So that’s pretty much were I stand on that issue. If you’re a vegan or a vegetarian, that’s great, but don’t get on me about it. I just happened to have the forum that night. I was on stage. It was great because the guy was all screaming at me and saying I was bad-mouthing their scene or movement or whatever. So I said, "Okay, asshole, you come up here and talk about yours." So he gets up there and starts ranting and raving about murdering cows and blah, blah, blah. Which cows are one of the dumbest animals on the planet. So the audience is on my side naturally, and I said, "All right, you’ve said your piece. Okay audience, who’s right?" Everyone sided with me and then he hit me. We fought. It was great because the whole audience basically grabbed him and pushed him to the back and threw him out of the venue.

Yeah. I mean, most people are realists. Being a vegan is like living in a fantasy world to me. I could really care less about their movement. It’s really not interesting to me at all.

We’re going back to Australia October 25 for our own head-lining tour.

Local Aussie bands. It will probably be a thousand head-a-night tour. It’s not 10 thousand, but it’s a thousand. They’re actually our biggest market in the world right now. We’re kicking ass down there. We do two festivals a year down there, which are about 15 to 20 thousand people. We aren’t the headliners, but we’re on the bill with Blink 182 and a bunch of big Aussie bands. The Living End is big down there. They’re like Woodstock. Australia’s rad because they do something like Woodstock two or three times a year.

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