Utter Trash--Jacknife Powerbombs 2006

Still Dropping the Bomb

An interview with Max Monter of The Jacknife Powerbombs

By Bob Ignizio

By day, Lakewood resident Max Monter is a mild mannered carpenter. By night, he becomes Lex Luxor and plays bass in punk rock band The Jacknife Powerbombs. The band (which also includes Giovanni Flamingo and Mephisto Mirage on guitar, Caesar Bolero on vocals, and Rio Sands on drums) has been slogging it out in the rough and tumble Cleveland rock scene since the Spring of 2002, and Max has been there since the beginning. Max says, “When we started, we were all pretty much beginners at our instruments and we earned ourselves a pretty bad rep with some of the more serious acts in town. About two years ago we had 2/5 of the band decide to leave and took the opportunity to shed some bad habits and really concentrate on better songs and more promotions. I'd say that we've been serious about music for two years, and before that we were friends having some good times at the expense of other peoples' ears.”

The change in attitude eventually paid off, with the band winning “Best Punk Rock Band” in the Cleveland Scene this past year. Max says, “It was nice to get that recognition. I don't know if people that aren't in bands realize how much work can be involved. It's not always an easy affair to keep a machine like this running smoothly. We throw as much at this monster as we can and we were really proud to get something back that tells us that it's somewhat appreciated by others.”

All that hard work almost went down the drain for Max about a year ago, though. That’s when he lost the tips of two fingers on his fretting hand while working at his job as a carpenter. “I accidentally introduced two of my fingers to the business end of a table saw,” Max explains. “I cut off the distal ends of my left hand middle and ring finger. The ring finger was lost (about a 1/2 inch) and the middle finger was sewn back on.”

Max continues, “You know, it's hard to confess to this but the first thought that I had when it happened was ‘I'm not going to be able to play anymore; I'm just going to kill myself.’ I know that seems sort of overboard but it's a hugely important part of my life and I don't know what I’d be doing without it.” Max’ band mates cheered him up by promising to wait for his recovery rather than look for a new bass player. The band only had to cancel one gig, and although the injury still bothers Max on occasion, he says it’s getting better.

As if winning awards and seriously injuring himself weren’t enough for one year, 2005 also saw the release of the debut CD from Max’ band, the self-released ‘Set to Go’. Max says, “We've gotten a very good response from it. It's still selling steadily and we've recently started getting some overseas purchases through our website. We decided to spend the money and hire a studio that we knew would do a good job, and I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.” The disc has garnered almost unanimous good reviews both from the press and the band’s fans.

When not playing music or working at his job, Max is an avid comic book collector (since the age of 14). He’s also a sculptor and does some illustration on occasion, including designing tattoos. Max says, “I do a lot of side work to get the bills paid so I rarely have time for hobbies. But I do like to read when I can, and I'm in the middle of writing some stories to turn into comics. I've had some poems published and I play some pretty intense games of chess. I also like to drink way too much and see how close I can come to getting arrested without actually getting arrested. I'm just a pretty normal kind of guy.”

So what’s next for this normal guy and his band? Max says, “We're hoping to get some interest in distribution and marketing so that we can get into stores in other cities. We’ve been writing songs like mad and we've got enough material together for another CD. We’ve always got a few shows lined up but we've been staying away from playing Cleveland because we over played our hometown last year.”