Simplicity & Purity

These days country music in general carries with it a kind of nasty connotation among rock music fans. Nashville is truly a music machine, pumping out the most polished of copycat acts and making Los Angeles and New York music industries look like decent places. But it wasn’t always that way. Not all country music is performed by some blonde-mullet pretty boy wearing jeans with no back pockets in a 4x4 Ford.

Guys like Wayne "The Train" Hancock and Hank Williams III are reminding people, one packed venue at a time, that country music can still be gritty, raw, real music with as much heart and soul as any other music form and that idea is starting to take hold. Rock groups like the Supersuckers and Ween have released traditional country music albums with much critical acclaim, raising the connection between country music and punk rock.

Chicoan Bob Howard understands that connection pretty well. Howard used to maintain the alias "Cynthia Vicious," bass player for Los Angeles’ notorious cross-dressing punk rock cover band, the Transexpistols. Suited in fishnet stockings, torn top, garish makeup and a bad wig, Howard and the Transexpistols belted out Sex Pistols cover tunes (probably better than the original) in a display of true punk rock. In Chico, however, Howard is simply Bob, husband of legendary Chico punk rocker Trish Rowland (The Repeat Offenders) and frontman of the Asskickers.

This five-piece traditional, lo-fi country outfit — Howard on vocals and rhythm guitar, Scott Pressman on lead guitar, John LaPado on the pedal steel guitar, Alan Wood on bass and Steve Bragg on drums — has been creating a buzz for over a year now, because while the music they create is non-threatening, comfortable traditional country music, Howard’s lyrics reflect his punk rock leanings. Songs like "Porno Queen," "S&M Blues" and "Punk Rawk Dawg" are thick with things like weepy steel pedal, deep, dark vocals and shuffling rhythms, but touch on subject matter that runs a bit racier than you’d normally find in country music.

The Asskickers’ debut CD release, On the Other Side of Town, comes out this week, and the Synthesis tracked down frontman and songwriter Bob Howard to learn a little more about this local punk band masquerading as a traditional country group.

You mean at the very beginning? I picked up the guitar when I was in high school, just like many others. I wanted to be the hot lead guitar player, so I had myself a Les Paul and tried to play a lot of heavy metal. For years and years all I played was metal. I took about four guitar lessons when I was about 15 years old and I learned how to play the bar chords and pentatonic minor — the blues scales. So for probably five or seven years that was all I played. I didn’t even know the basic stuff, a regular A chord or E chord, stuff like that. It was just bar chords and those blues scales. I stretched ‘em out a long way. I played a lot of AC/DC, Motorhead, stuff like that. Anything that was easy, that I could bang out with bar cords. But I never really developed any chops as a lead guitar player. I don’t think I have the patience to sit there and run scales all the time, so I kinda’ get more enjoyment out of writing riffs, which I think is what probably eventually lead to songwriting.

Oh, I started songwriting way before that… well, I listened to a lot of skate punk back in the ‘80s, and I had discovered the Sex Pistols pretty early on, but really I was really weaned on metal. I got out of high school in ’89, and I lived in the Bay Area, in Orinda, and metal was really big. It was just big in our neighborhood. Metal was what was going on when I was listening to music then.

That whole thing — the Transexpistols — started out as a regular Sex Pistols tribute band, and we just thought that name up one night, and it was just one of those things, ‘it has to be done, and we’re just the guys to do it!’ I think, a lot of time, people sit around drinkin’ or smokin’ or whatever and they come up with great ideas, but they don’t act on them. What’s that they say? One percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration? Sometimes you just have to do what you’re talking about doing, and once you do, it’s sometimes just amazing to see where it leads. In this case, if I hadn’t put on those fishnet stockings, I would not be up here in Chico now with the Asskickers. The Transexpistols is how we met Stinky (former Chicoan Mike Erpino, Transexpistols drummer) and the whole reason we ever thought about coming to Chico. We came up here and had one of the best shows and best times I’ve ever had. That’s how I met Trish, and now here I am.

I started listening to country when I was living in Los Angeles. Someone turned me on to Steve Earle, and I already knew about Willie and Johnny, all the Outlaws. I couldn’t tolerate the radio country for a long time, but I actually like it now, just because of the quality of the songs. It seems like some of those guys are a little more genuine than some of their rock contemporaries.

Well, that’s true, but I think as a result of that, it’s the genuinely talented people who are doing well, maybe because of that formula, but it’s not the Nashville country that I like the most, it’s the Outlaw country from other places. Steve Earle, man, that guy is one of those artists that fell into that chasm between country and rock, so he never really got the radio play he should have, which is too bad because he’s so talented as a songwriter. Then again, I think he kind of shot himself in the foot, because he spent some time in jail and had some problems with drugs, so I think that right when he was starting to get his props, he was kinda going downhill.

I think it may be rooted in the simplicity of the songs and the purity — you’re really going after the essence of the songs in both country and punk, though country is now way more produced than punk ever was, but they’re still going after that core melody or line in the song. When I listen to rock radio now, it just seems to be really sound- and riff-oriented. Of course there are exceptions, but you can’t find that melody in lots of the new rock music. It cracks me up when I hear Fred Durst sampling "check out my melody," but there’s no melody in the song, it’s monotony all the way through. When I’m writing songs, I usually start with a line and maybe a melody that is either encompassed in that line, or springs from that single line, and work around that. Sometimes a song will come right out of there, and sometimes I’ll have to work it out in my head for months.

I moved up to Chico with about eight songs that I had written in this quasi-country flavor. They weren’t necessarily country songs, but they definitely leaned that way; they were folk-y, kind of story-telling songs. When I came up here, Trish, whose been immersed in the music scene up here and had a really good ear, was listening to me write, and was telling me who I should be playing with. Immediately, she thought of John LaPado, because he’s just an excellent musician and he can do just about anything, plus he’s perfect for the style of music we’re doing. I met Steve through Trish, who’s been playing with him for years. We had a few bass players come in and play, and finally stuck with Allen. He was actually kind of a wildcard. He was just in Sound Source playing one day, and I approached him and asked if he wanted to jam with our band. He turned out to be really phenomenal, a great musician, and we’re lucky to have him. After we played once in the Downtown Park with Danny West, Scott approached us said he wanted in too, which was just great.

Yeah, I like the country music, but a lot of times when I listen to country radio, it’s so white-bread, and there is still a lot of heavy religious connotation in a lot of the music that I personally want no part of. I mean, whatever your’s or mine or whoever’s religious beliefs are, fine, just keep it to yourself, and let’s talk about something that’s gonna be meaningful to more than just the people who believe the exact same thing you do. All those real country singers, the Outlaws and those guys, are livin’ just as hard as any of the rockers, and some of the guys reflect in their material, but I think that maybe it’s just time for country music to start reflecting more of, um, modern living.

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