| EWO - There seems to be a real close knit community in Detroit, with lots of bands touring together and helping one another out on records. Is that really the case? TJP - Oh yeah. M - There's only actually 40 musicians. Its all the same 40 people in all the bands, as you know I'm in the Cobras. These two guys (Dan Maister and Mike Walker) are in a band called Bogue. TJP - I used to be in the Dirtbombs M - He kicked himself out of the Dirtbombs. DM - and I quit the Cobras. [Theres some discussion EWO can't quite make out, we suspect talk of Jason being the new kid? Or are they calling him nougat?] M - It's like a rule in Detroit, you have to be in at least two bands. TJP - Otherwise you get kicked out of the union. M - Yeah, the garage union. EWO - We noticed there are different people playing on the tracks "Mary's Lil' Lamb" from the live line up. Is there a set line up, or do you just use whoever's available? TJP - This is the band now, when that was done it was done as a sort of quasi solo project for me. Jim Diamond and I were just pulling in different people we thought would work well with what we were doing, and we just kind of put it together. When we got the record deal with Acid Jazz they wanted a touring band, so I got the best of the best. EWO - Does having a line up that's so heavily involved with other bands make it difficult to find time for recording and touring? MW - It can be a problem, but we usually get around it. TJP - Most stuff we know about far enough in advance so we can get around it, it can get in the way sometimes, but... I quit the band that was getting in my way! EWO - Your debut album is coming out soon, are there a lot of guest on the album too? TJP - Yeah, well everybody in the band is on the album MW - and the 40 other musicians M - Jack White's all over it too (laughter) TJP - There's a lot of people playing on it. People from The Dirtbombs, The Come On's, Bogue. We just did three more tracks, two of which are for the album, which we just recorded as the band, just us as the band is now. This is the line-up from now on. EWO - When is the album due out? TJP - I think we're talking about getting it out for July or August at this point. We're just doing the first single, and then we're going to release the second single and album in July or August I believe. EWO - Are there plans to come over to do any festivals? TJP - I'm not sure yet, there is some talk about it, but we'll have to wait and see. We'd be playing at like 2 o'clock in the afternoon you know, M - In the parking lot! TJP - We'd be playing right next to the Johnny on the spot. |
| detroit city council ...the interview |
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