Introduce yourself…
Tesco Muthu-fukin' Vee The Dutch Hercules
How did the band start?
2 High School chums who were emboldened by all the Punk Rock happenings and we wanted to spray some intestinal mud all over the proceedings...and give t a sense of humor G Dammit!
How did you come up with the name?
My partner on the Touch and Go zine would hop in my car on the way to a show and belch..I'd then guess what his mom made for dinner..gently takinga pull off the brackish cattlelesh laden stenchwind I'd hazard an approximation..'Meatloaf made with Frenchs Onion Soup with a side of mashed spuds and brown gravy?' Bingo! Got it again!
Who would you say are your influences?
The Fugs, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Black Randy and the Metrosquad, MC5, Iggy, Necros, and many others!
What was the punk scene like in 1980?
it was swirling like a tempest of testosterone..of course the softer option was also cool..we didnt differentiate in the magazine..If we liked it we liked it..but what really floated our collective boats was the US hardcore..most notable the Midwest and West Coast stuff.
How do you feel it has changed?
Around 1983 its seemed like things changed..of course moving to DC in Sept of 1982 meant I had no band and was doing the mag for 5 issues solo..but I wasnt ready to pack it in yet!
What is the song writing process? Come up with a silly idea and build on it..or if you are The Meatmen you try and ponder the most offensive but funny thing you can conceive..try and get a rise out of people..all the early hits were written in Rich Ramseys hot cramped attic bedroom where he grew magic mushrooms..we guzzled a bunch of 6 percent swill and wrote all the hits Tooling For Anus, 1 Down 3 To Go, I've Got A Problem...
You first released a demo, tell us about the demo…
Recorded in my garage in lansing..mic hanging from a nail..as raw as it gets..if we only knew it would be on a record for all of posterior un I mean posterity maybe we would have done it differently....nahhhhhhhh!
Your first and still most popular album was ‘Were the Meatmen… and You Suck!’, tell us about the album…
Its actually a live show from the Mudd Club on one side..what I remember about that show was The Beastie Boys were these pesky little kids who wanted to get in free and I was like Piss off! I remember the show pretty vividly considering I forgot alot of the other ones..we were just hayseeds from Michigan playin the big city...The B side of the album is the Blud Sausage EP...
In 1985 you released ‘War of the Superbikes’, tell us about the album…
We headed in a different direction...more hard charging..some like it some didnt...I love that record...has half of Minor Threat playing on it for fuksake! I got totally ripped off on that one..never saw a dime..Dutch East India and Barry Tennenbaum...just below pod scum...
How do you feel ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Juggernaut’ differed? We were makin fun of hard rock and metal while also playin it..there was plenty of the old school anache that still made it a Meatmen platter
In 1990, you released ‘Crippled Children Suck’ as a full length, tell us about the album…Just another rehash with some added stuff...
In 1995, you released your second most popular record ‘Pope on a Rope’, tell us about the album…2nd most popular? OK..that one really went for the throat in a double kick, tuned down kinda fashion..I love that record..some do some don't.
How do you feel ‘Toilet Slave’ and ‘War of the Superbikes, Vol. 2’ differed?
Toilet Slave we made a concerted effort to appease the old school fans..It was a mix of my tunes and Cosmic Slop songs that was a band my backup guys had...this one came out in 1994 Pope in 1995.
What caused the band to break up in the late ‘90s?
Things had just run their course for that line up..I've always just done it until it wasnt fun and then take a break!
Why did you start doing shows again in 2009?
My son actually got me started again..in May 2008 John Brannon from Negative Approach asked me to introduce the first NA show in Detroit in 25 years..then it turned a half hour set and before you know it I'm back at it again!
In 2009, you release the current album ‘Cover the Earth’, tell us about the album…Not a new concept to say the least..an all cover album but just all the tunes I've always loved..an ode to my heroes..I'm still a music fan first and foremost.
Who are some of the bands you have done shows with?
Dead Kennedys, Melvins, Circle Jerks, Misfits, Minor Threat, Government Issue, The Obsessed and every other DC and Midwest bands.
Do you prefer to do shows at large venues or small clubs?
Small clubs..more intimate and fun
Where have you toured?
All over the US
Is there a favorite band you like to do shows with?
Not really
What do you see is the future of the Meatmen?
The lineup I have now flat out cooks...we all get on great...doing a big west coast tour in April...Cant wait! If you wanna see what old school punk looks like, catch a show..you wont be dissapointed..confetti and T shirt guns, give aways and 1 hour of hades Meets Las Vegas hellfire!
How can people contact the band?
ron@crawlspacebooking.com for booking...
http://www.tescovee.com/ for all the latest dates ..check out The meatmen fanpage on facebook
So many of today's younger punk rockers are in such denial over this band. They were Nazis, plain and simple, and Tesco Vee knows that. Sadly, the kid who is putting this blog together does not. As a result, he can easily fall into the delusion that Tesco never meant his hateful bigotry to be taken as seriosuly as it was by his own fans.
ReplyDeleteTheir music wasnt "sarcasm", it was hate rock. I know these guys, I worked at the places they played in. I remember them at the Hungry Brain and at Bookies. I saw what they did.
I know their former roadies, i know their fans, and I know that they specifically marketted their "work" to the neo-Nazi skinheads that dominated Detroit in the 80s, and who were their ONLY fans at the time.
Dont kid yourself, kid..., this isnt one of the "best punk bands," they were just coked-up bigots spreading their filth the same way GG flung his feces from the stage.
The denial modern punks have over this band is so absurd. And the fact that so many of you are so willing to help Tesco LIE about his past shows that you have all the independant thinking of a good Catholic denying the fact that the bishop fondles boys.
I mean, were you around then? Do you know who these guys played for? DO you know what their fans did to innocent people all over Detroit, all at the behast of these dimwits?
I'm glad Tesco Vee finally grew something vaguely resembling a conscience (however small it might be) and thats why he is trying revamp his image. (he certainly has enough young people who are completely ignorant of the truth to do just that.)
But those of us who hung out back then remember, and arent falling for the bald faced lies that dreamy eyed youngins use to erase the truth about who the Meatmen really were, what they did, and how much they contrributed to the nazi skinhead problem in Michigan.
The writer of this blog says,
ReplyDelete"Throughout the years I have seen countless thousands of people wearing the 'Were the Meatmen and You Suck' t-shirt at several events, so I know that have an amazing fanbase throughout the world."
You really have all the brains god gave a used cumrag Minnesota Putz.
Seriously, you know they have an "amazing fan base"? Because all these methed out loosers where Meatmen t-shirts? THAT"S your standard?
Good gawd, how much crack do you need to smoke before you come to that idiot conclusion? Whatever happened to independent thinking in the punk rock movement?
So here is the real deal from someone who was there, and who doenst have a vested interest in LYING the way TEsco Vee does.
Question: What was the punk Scene like in 1980?
Answer: it was FULL OF NAZIS (thats why Jello wrote the "Nazi punks fuck-off" song... he wasnt speaking hypothetically.)
In the Detroit scene, if you didnt pepper yourself from head to toe with swatikas and SS logos, you were in the minority.
Most of those kids were rich white boys from the suburbs who hated JEws, were scared of black people and terrified of gays. There were EXACTLY 7 people of color (including Lacey from Son of Sam), 1 Arab club promoter and 1 hispanic in the Detroit scene at that time. ALL of them were harrassed for being minorities thanks in part to that hate fueled by TEsco Vee.
Question: How do you feel it has changed?
Answer: Half the scene got hooked on crack and heroin.
Question: What caused the band to break up in the late ‘90s?
Answer: Detroit punks came to the startling conclusion that being Nazis wasnt so great after all.
Also, half of Tescos fan base either OD'd, shot each other, committed suicide or came out of the closet. One of them even wound up on America's Most Wanted... that might sound "wonderfully exotic" to some dreamy eyed bonehead of today, but the guy in question, Ron Beauty, was an actual murderer.
After all that, then suddenly these idiots decided that maybe it wasnt their place to harrass people for being different (how surprising from a bunch of guys with pink hair and leather pants.)
The Meatmen broke up because their fanbase of coked up NAzis and fleabag junkies were all killing thmselves, and smarter people werent interested in them.
Question: Why did you start doing shows again in 2009?
Answer: Because a younger generation of punks who, like you, were not even born at the time, had some head-up-the-ass fantasy about the earlier scene being all sunshine and lollipops. Tesco Vee knows he can revamp himself through your naivete.
Furthermore, tesco hopes that the neoNazi hate (that he made his money from in the 80s) might come back in style, what with anger against a new black president to stoke more hatred against minorities. You are complicit in that, blogger boy.
You are helping Tesco LIE, and its a dirty shame. As said above, you have all the integrity of a good Catholic dismissing the truth about pedophilia among priests.
Now take the money you might spend on Tesco's garbage, or that you are trying to glean from readers of your sad, dishonest blog, and try to buy yourself a clue.
-Ta!