Random Acts of Verbiage

I spoke slowly into the phone and was having difficulty maintaining coherence with what was transpiring on the other end. I was talking to Tony Sly, frontman for No Use For A Name, and it seemed to be a little too early for bright colors and multi-syllabic speech about such things as fame, fortune, and all the rest of that gibberish that goes along with being in a rock outfit. But Tony and I did just that—waxing philosophic about the mires of touring,how it's not polite to talk shit and the subtlety and nuance of keeping kosher, and what that has to do with Leche Con Carne.

No Use For A Name hails from Sunnyvale, California, near the heart of Silicon Valley, and has just released their third full-length on Fat Wreck Chords, More Betterness, a follow-up to the largely successful Making Friends. Curious to find out a little about the punk icon that runs Fat Wreck, (Fat Mike, the man behind the mic in NOFX), I decided to start there. Tony explained that they are lucky enough to have a label that takes a fairly hands-off approach. And that's always good to hear, when it seems that everywhere else bands are getting reamed and only making pennies per album while a huge conglomerate laughs heartily and pads its pockets off the sweat of another's success.

What's it like working with Fat Mike?

We don't really work with him that much. It's like everything at the label is really simple, all the contracts and stuff, they're drawn up really simple. He gives us a lot of freedom as far as what we record, when we record, all that kind of stuff. It's great, our relationship with the label is really good.

You guys do much snowboarding?

Our drummer Rory does. I kind of like gave up on it because it's totally frustrating.

What's up with the album name Leche Con Carne? Does it have anything to do with keeping kosher?

No. But we've been asked that before. [laughs] We've always said that record wouldn't go over well in Israel, you know? And we didn't think about that before we put it out, we just though it was a little funny.

It is. I've always liked it. It sounds funny.

And then…someone who was Spanish was trying to explain to me that it means absolutely nothing, because of the way it's said it would mean like pouring, like you put milk on meat and it doesn't make any sense.

[Then suddenly I think the conversation took a wrong turn. Maybe it was my lack of professionalism getting the better of me, but I wandered down a path that wasn't going anywhere. It's been my feeling that beyond the usual 'getting to know the artist' aspect of interviewing it's interesting to see if I can get some dirt on someone. Not so much in a slanderous way, but in an effort to throw some life into a story. Tony however; ever the polite and amicable gentleman, wasn't down with my cause.]

You guys ever talk shit?

No. I just try not to because it's no good. You go on the road and I've learned a lot of things in the years about talking crap about people…and even if it's not crap, even if it's the truth, it's better left unsaid. Usually when we talk crap it's about ourselves, people in the band.

Yeah, do that. You wanna talk about the drummer?

I can't really talk crap about him because he such a nice guy. He's, like, known as a nice guy. Like, you say "Hey, you know Rory?" and they're like "Yeah, he's a nice guy."

Are you a nice guy?

[laughing] I don't know. I'm not sure. I haven't really heard back on that. But lemme see…um, I want to give you some dirt but it's hard. Oh, one time our old guitarist, Chris, punched our drummer in the face. That was pretty funny.

Was he asking for it?

No. [laughing] It's just that we were drinking and stuff. It was just really funny. I guess that's not really crap, but…

[So I switched tactics and decided to talk about more applicable stuff, getting into favorites, authors, movies and the like. I noticed on the band's Web site that he liked a movie called Bottle Rocket and so I asked him about that dude's latest movie, (which I really liked), Rushmore, and he agreed that it was a damn good flick too. Then it turned to literary tastes.]

You read any good books lately?

Actually right now I'm reading two. I'm reading this one called Punk Rock, So What? And also one, Piano for Dummies. [Laughs] But as far as favorite authors, there's this guy who wrote a couple books that I read recently and I never usually read more than one book by a person. It never usually intrigues me enough where I go 'Oh, I gotta' go get those other books by that author.' But this time I read a book called Fever Pitch by this guy, Nick Hornby.

Oh yeah, [over-excitedly butting in] I read that…no wait. I read Hi Fidelity.

Yeah, that's what got me to read Hi Fidelity.

You liked that one? Wow.

I really liked both of those books.

Isn't he British or something? Because somebody recommended that one to me and I kind of didn't get it.

Yeah, he's British and so I could see why some of the humor wouldn't come across very well, because you're reading it and it's difficult to get that out of a book.

Maybe that's it, but I think it also might have been a girl thing, because a girl recommended it to me. It was, like, 'Sensitive Guy' a little too much for me.

I thought so too. But I think Fever Pitch was a much funnier book.

Cool. Maybe I'll have to check that one out too. So, you ever, like, have lunch with the President or anything…like who's the most famous person you've ever met?

Deion Sanders.

Deion Sanders? How did that happen? Was it like the new, religious Deion, or the old one?

It was the Deion on the 'Niners.

I think that was pre-religion.

Yeah, it was pre-religion, (laughing) he was still partying with MC Hammer and stuff up in the Fremont Hills. I was at the San Francisco airport and I walked into the cafeteria before I got on the plane to get a sandwich, you know, because I hate airplane food, and uh, he was in the line, getting something…right before me. But he was just going through the buffet line with a tray, and there was nobody in the restaurant but me and him and the person that was serving. And I went up to him—it was like the day after the won the Super Bowl against the Chargers—and I'm all "Hey Deion, good game yesterday." And he's all, "Oh, you a 'Niners fan?" and I said "No, actually I'm a Raiders fan so I hate the Chargers." And we just started talking.

No way. That's hella cool, the day after?

Yeah, and he was pretty nice too. I thought he would be a jerk, I thought he'd just blow me off, but he was really cool. Probably because it was just me and him, and what does he care if just one person just comes up and talks to him. Because I wasn't like "Hey Deion!!!" I was all mellow about it. I was all, "Hey, what's up?"

Right on. Well, I'm feeling guilty because I think I was under-prepared. Did you think this interview went badly?

No. I think it went well.

Cool. Thanks man.

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