Loud, Fast & Furious

The Murder City Devils don't fuck around.

After only a few years in existence, this seven-piece rock band—Spencer Moody (vox), Dann Gallucci (guitar), Nate Manny (guitar), Derek (bass), Coady Willis (drums), Leslie Hardy (Farfisa organ) and Gabe (roadie, driver, manager, et al)—has released two full-length albums and has already toured the nation extensively.

Amid a flurry of touring, and with more road time on the horizon, The Murder City Devils have just completed work on their third release, titled In Name and In Blood. The new record is different from the last two—the group's eponymous debut and last year's Empty Bottles, Broken Hearts.

"To me it feels a lot more complete," says Devils' guitarist Nate Manny. "All the songs seem to go well together. As an album, all the songs work together, like, when I left the studio, I felt like it was done, as opposed to other times, there were other things that could have been better."

The Murder City Devils spent a bit more time and money on this project, and though they didn't spend months in the studio, Nate says the extra effort really shines through. The Devils' usual recording schedule is as fast and furious as much of their touring schedule, and in the case of In Name and In Blood, three weeks was more time than they had ever spent laying down tracks.

"We spent a lot more time, which was nice. The first album we did in three days; the second one we did in nine; and this one we did in a little over three weeks. It was a big difference, and it just sounds a lot bigger and tighter. I feel like we've grown a lot as a band."

Part of that growth included Leslie Hardy—who is in the band Love As Laughter—on the Farfisa organ. Nate says that before Hardy joined the band all the keyboard parts were played by bass player Derek, forcing Nate to play bass and leaving those songs with only one guitar. The addition of Leslie to the lineup allows for the sound to remain full.

"Now, all of those songs that we had before with keyboard have two guitars, and we're able to write differently," explains Nate. "It fills up the sound a lot more, and it's changed the way that we write because we can incorporate the keyboards into the beginning of the process. I feel like we're writing better songs now."

The new-found higher quality of the music and the attention paid to studio time will most likely translate into another great record. Still, three weeks isn't all much time to spend in the studio, considering that many bands take literally months to get music recorded.

"You know, when we were first going in, I said, 'Jesus, three weeks. We did the last one in nine, and I don't know how I could spend that much time recording an album,'" confesses Nate. "And then at the end of the three weeks, I totally understood how you could spend more time than that. Months and months. But at the same time, it was every day, for 14 hours a day for three weeks. By the end of it, I was like, 'Get me out of here. I don't want to do this any more.' I felt beaten down by the end."

Recording isn't the only grueling thing about the rock 'n' roll lifestyle these guys lead. The Murder City Devils tour extensively and play high energy shows. It's no wonder that their recording schedule fits that fast-and-furious format. They're used to it. There are currently four tours in the works for The Devils: the current one, a pending U.S. tour in March, and one more in June when the album drops. But now, says Nate, there's a good chance that The Devils will hit the road for five weeks in Europe with Epitaph punk band Zeke.

"That would be for all of May, so we'd end up being on tour for almost four months straight, which is pretty exciting," says Nate, though he admits that touring can sometimes put a kink in the band members' real lives.

"Everyone has jobs and stuff [Nate works as a tattoo artist at Seattle's Chrome Ohm tattoo shop], so we try not to be gone for more that five weeks at a time, so we'll be gone for five weeks and stay home for five weeks. We try to do it like that, but it's starting to look like this next year might be really crazy."

It may be crazy, but none of The Devils are complaining. In fact, Nate says The Devils itch to get on the road after too much time home.

"Touring has gotten to be something where, if we're home for too long, everyone kinda' starts to freak out a little bit, everyone gets a little stir crazy. When you go out on tour there's a pattern to it: We first leave and everyone's really excited. We drink a lot more, and we go into it with a lot of gusto and it's just a big party. The second week, it's kind of tailing off a little bit, the third week is like a hangover when everyone's just tired, and then the fourth week, it kinda gets to be more fun again, and then usually we come home. Then when we get home, it's kinda weird 'cause we wake up in the same town and we don't leave again. It takes a couple of days to get used to not being tour and then after a while, it's fun to be home, and then it just gets to be time to leave again."

"Some people in the band have it worse than others. Like Gabe, he can't be home for more than three or four days and he's ready to leave again. But we all really like touring. It's just what we do. In other bands, we would tour once a summer, and it was the road trip. Then all of a sudden this band started and we started touring all the time and it was always, 'Well, we have to go on tour.' I never really knew why we had to—there was no reason—we just always touring. We went out and we toured all the time. And we still do. I think it's a good thing. It makes us feel like we're working, like we're a working band and like it is kind of a job."

And it is kind of a job, though as Nate said, he and the rest of The Devils all have day jobs, and though that makes things difficult, rock 'n' roll just doesn't pay the bills yet.

"No, no," chuckles Manny, sort of regretfully and thankfully at the same time. "I mean, it's a lot different than it used to be, but we all still have to work. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have to work…I mean, I know what I'd do, but it seems like the way things are now, and how much money we make now and how much we have to tour—for us to be able to live off of it would be…I don't really know what that would be like. Something different would have to happen, something that I can't really expect."

That something may come sooner than Nate expects, due to The Devils' incendiary sound and rock 'n' roll work ethic. But Manny can't say where either the sound or the ethic come from. The Murder City Devils don't have just one musical influence. Their music is rooted in rock, pure and simple, but there is the element of punk, the influence of a myriad of musical input and a real grasp of what rock and roll is about—grinding guitars and heavy beat, as well as a defining attitude.

"It's hard to say where that sound comes from. Everyone listens to a lot of types of bands," says Nate. "We just kind of put things together, and the way we play, the way our songs sound, is just one of those things where there's all the information, and the band is a shaker. If we shake around enough, things drop down into their right spots, and that's the song. Someone will bring in a song and no matter what it sounds like, by the time the rest of the band has their way with it, it turns into its own thing. I don't feel like we have a specific reservoir or secret stash of music."

Though Nate cannot point to specific references, he knows what the driving force behind the band is.

"Just rock 'n' roll," he muses.

Which begs the question, what is rock 'n' roll?

"It's the beat," he says flatly. "If you got that, then it's rock 'n' roll as far as I'm concerned. Take the beat and throw a healthy dose of attitude on top. No matter what it is, put a little swagger into it, and don't ever feel guilty for doing something that a lot of bands would probably think is cheesy or cock rock. Just do it like you mean it.

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