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If
That Ain’t Country…
An interview with Gary Lupico of
California Speedbag
By Bob
Ignizio |
California Speed bag play country music. And even
though they don’t sound much like what you hear on WGAR or see on CMT
they’re not interested in labels like “Americana” or “alt country”. “To me,
Shania Twain is alt. country. Let Shania Twain and Garth Brooks and Toby
Keith be alt country because that’s not country. What’s kind of weird is we
were doing this before any of what has been labeled alt country came
out,” says California Speedbag vocalist/guitarist Gary Lupico. Gary started
his musical career in Cleveland with the late seventies punk band The
Kneecappers which also included Speedbag bass player Russell Sherman Jr.
Gary says, “We used to get together with a couple guys in another band,
Brian Cox (vocals, guitar) and Jeff Benik (drums), to play country music.
We began doing that as a side thing and then it started taking over.” By
1987 those informal jam sessions had turned into a full fledged band. The
group also includes pedal steel guitar player Dan Morris.
To those only familiar with mainstream modern country
it may seem odd that a bunch of punk rockers would gravitate towards the
genre. But listen to Johnny Cash, David Allan Coe, or other country artists
from the seventies and earlier and you can hear some of the same attitude
that infuses the best punk rock. Gary says, “It was probably the mid
seventies when I started listening to country. A lot of rock stuff like The
Byrds & The Burrito Brothers got me more interested in it. Rock music
pretty much blew then, and there were some great country guys like Waylon
Jennings, Haggard, and Jones, all that stuff. It was a lot more fun to
listen to than rock music at the time. Older stuff, too. Fifties sixtes
seventies. There’s a lot of good stuff.” Closer to home, Gary credits a
little known Cleveland artist named Deadly Earnest: “He played here back in
the seventies. It was Deadly Earnest and the Honky Tonk Heroes. They were
a great band and I used to go see them all the time. He was pretty
influential in a lot of ways as far as what I liked about country. He’s in
Montana or Wyoming or something now.”
Because of their dedication to the older style of
country, Gary’s band is far more likely to be found playing venues like The
Beachland Ballroom than The Boot Scootin’ Saloon. “We have a harder time
playing country bars, actually. People are ruthless. If people don’t like
you things can get ugly. We used to play some really scabby country bars on
the west side when they’d have us. But we almost always play with rock
bands or just play by ourselves. We’ve got a pretty big repertoire. We
like to play a couple sets anyways. I can’t think of any other country
bands around here except the ones who play the Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith
type stuff. Our music has rock, blues, and country in it. It can go a lot
of ways,” Gary explains.
California Speedbag doesn’t just stay true to the sound
of classic country, but to the lyrical themes as well. That doesn’t mean
Gary’s lyrics aren’t personal and heartfelt. Gary says, “All of my lyrics
have meant something to me. Well, maybe that’s not entirely true.
Sometimes I write something and I’m like where’d that come from? It just
sort of pops into your head. So some of them are written a little more off
the cuff than others. Some of it is from personal experience, but a lot of
it isn’t. Like prison and killing people. But it’s all metaphors for
something else, whether it’s prison or Jesus or whatever. There’s a certain
amount of irony. It’s not a genre that lends itself to taken ultra
seriously, but we’re respectful of it.”
Although the band has been around for over a decade now
they’ve only just released their first real album, the excellent ‘The Fire
of Misery’ which came out on Smogveil records. Why did it take so long?
Gary says, “We had a release we put out in 88 or 89, but it was just a
cassette. Back in the day, it cost a lot of dough to make a CD. Now
technology is in a lot of people’s hands. We’re older, and we’ve
accumulated equipment over time so we were able to record it the way we
wanted without having to watch a clock. Plus for a few years we didn’t do a
lot of playing at all. Brian moved up to Michigan and still lives up there
but we get him down as often as we can. He’s usually able to make it. Then
Frank from Smogveil offered to put out a record, so we were like sure. So
the reason ‘The Fire of Misery’ got released was, in one word, Frank.”
One benefit of waiting so long is the band was able to
amass a sizeable catalog of material to choose from. Although they decided
not to re-record any of the songs from their earlier cassette release the
band still had plenty to work with. According to Gary, “We just had a bunch
of stuff recorded and put the stuff we liked the best on the album. I think
we probably had 16 or 18 songs to pick from. I think three of them were
cover songs anyways, as many songs as we have.’ Although the songs on the
cassette had been recorded at Mars Studio with Bill Korecky, for ‘The Fire
of Misery’ the band recorded at Gary’s own home studio with Gary and Russell
co-producing. “It’s kind of a luxury to be able to do it that way as
opposed to paying for every minute at somebody else’s place,” Gary says.
Although the band would like to tour, due to the usual
difficulties facing bands on independent labels that will probably have to
wait for a while. Gary says, “We’ve got a guy in the band right now who’s
working a night shift. But we have a window of opportunity coming up so I
think this fall we may try to do something. It will probably be along the
lines of going somewhere for three days, then going somewhere else for three
days regionally. I don’t think we’re going to bomb across the United
States.” Locally the band recently had their CD release party at The
Beachland, but for the immediate future Gary says, “We’ve got nothing going
on right now, but we’ll be putting something together soon. We’ll probably
play some shows this summer.”
In the meantime Gary is pleased with the job Smogveil
has been doing promoting the album. They’ve had a full page ad in No
Depression, the bible of the roots and alt. country scene, and have received
airplay on New York’s influential college radio station WFMU. Gary also
plays in the more rock oriented band St. Jayne, which he describes as, “a
bunch of fucking noise” and which from the CD he gave me I would say sounds
a bit like the Butthole Surfers with its blend of psychedelic rock, punk,
country, and dissonance. Despite all the years Gary has spent playing
music, or perhaps because of them, he comes across as a down to earth,
amiable kind of guy. So do yourself a favor and check out California
Speedbag next time they play, and maybe buy Gary a beer.
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