Utter Trash--Kill the Hippies

Life is Swell

An interview with Mort Treehorne, P.P. Envy, and Bobby Robot of Kill the Hippies

By Bob Ignizio

Since 1993, Kent Ohio’s Kill the Hippies has been a fixture of the Northeast Ohio punk scene. In that time they’ve released numerous tapes, seven inches, and compilation tracks. They’ve played countless local gigs, toured, and gone through more drummers than Spinal Tap (and one long time second guitarist, Kenneth R. Pickelseimer, Jr.). The band also recently released the 2 disc set ‘Erectospecitve’ on the Rock N Roll Purgatory label, a daunting 77 song epic that collects just about everything this band has ever recorded with the exception of their one and only to date full length CD ‘Spasms in the New Age’. And the whole time, the band has maintained a sound influenced by bands like Devo, The Crucifux, The Dead Kennedys, and The Butthole Surfers but unique in its own right. So there was plenty of stuff to talk about when I got the chance to sit down with founders Mort Treehorne (guitar, vocals) and P. P. Envy (bass, vocals), as well as the band’s latest drummer Bobby Robot. Both the band and I were pretty well inebriated when this interrogation took place, but I somehow managed to transcribe our drunken ramblings and put them together into something resembling a coherent interview. Enjoy.

Utter Trash: How long have you been together and how many drummers have you been through in that time?
Mort Treehorne: Since 12/93. This is number nine here as far as I know, but I’m sure no one is counting?

Utter Trash (to current drummer Bobby Robot): So do you already feel like your days are numbered?
Bobby Robot: I think I might spontaneously combust.
P.P. Envy: The drummers number themselves.
BR: As far as I’m concerned I don’t have no damn number.

UT: Do you view drummers the same way as Hitchcock viewed actors, like cattle?
MT: Actually we’re the cattle, we need some dude with a prod behind us.

UT: Do you still do a lot of the same songs from back in the beginning?
P.P. There’s a pretty even mix. Not totally even, but we always gradually bring stuff back. We try to keep a mix of old and new.
MT: We’re bringing a lot back right now because the “Best of” album is out.
UT: That’s on Rock N Roll Purgatory, right?
PP: Right. There’s roughly 80 songs on two discs. The first CD is every seven inch and compilation tracks. The second CD is old shit off of our first three tapes and unreleased stuff that no one’s ever heard before. The lyrics for the first CD will be on there, but there’s not enough room for the rest.

UT: Out of everything you’ve done, what songs stand out as your favorites?
MT: “Skullfighter”! I’d like to do “Sex is a Bore” again. That’s our anti-sex, pro-drug song. I used to get so drunk my dick was flaccid so I didn’t’ get fucked by nothing.

UT: You do really well in the Kent and Akron areas, but you’ve had a harder time getting noticed in Cleveland. Any idea why?
PP: We don’t live there and hang out there.
MT: Cleveland’s lame, that’s all there is too it. I like some things about Cleveland, but I can’t really get drunk and drive there. If we get a limo driver we’ll play there more.

UT: Do you tour outside of Ohio?
PP: The South has been wonderful to us, especially North Carolina. Alabama. Florida. New Orleans has been amazing.
MT: We do tours on word of mouth. Back when the Mantis was going, we’d make friends with bands that would come through and it was easy to set things up. We got so many tours out of that place.

UT: Aside from the best of album, any new stuff on the way?
MT: Yeah. We’ve just got to put bass and vocals on that motherfucker and it’s ready to go. That’s the last album with Chris, our old drummer, and then we’re writing stuff with this guy now too.
PP: That’s coming out on Criminal I.Q. records out of Chicago. First he wants to re-release our last full length CD ‘Spasms in the New Age’.

UT: Is there a message to your lyrics?
PP: All my stuff is mostly politically motivated. We have goofy songs, too. It depends on how far you want to read into it really. “Flags and Gas” is on our most recent seven inch, and that’s all about the Iraq war and the whole explosion of everybody in the states putting flags on their cars and still driving their big ass cars. There’s another song on the new double CD called “Chopped Off” which is about working in a factory. I picked up a lady’s finger off of a machine because they didn’t have the cover on the foot pedal. The machine malfunctioned and she reached in without shutting it off, and this girl who was being trained stepped forward and hit the pedal and it chopped the first lady’s finger off. I grabbed her finger and put it on ice, handed it to her, and left. The company within that year closed down.

(at this point Dave from the band Arcade Inferno begins talking about anarchy, and asks if KTH are anarchists)
MT: I used to go anarchist, and then I realized I was living off a lot of things while I said it. Most people I met who were anarchists that I respect are people who do more practical things, like make their own shit. Like this dude in Ashville who has a toilet you don’t flush. He shits in some soil in a barrel and makes fertilizer out of it.
PP: I just don’t really connect with a movement at all.
BR: When I was a kid and started to get into punk, it was all about anarchy and fist fights and getting drunk. And I got a little older and started understanding things a little better. And I kind of enjoyed the American flag and apple pie, but everything behind it was bullshit. But I’ve been in bands my whole life, never been home, doing the whole rebel anarchy thing. And I started figuring things out and realized America wasn’t really so bad. And I ended up having a kid, and the biggest thing I relied on was the government for things like WIC because I was on the road all the time. Now I’m 27 years old, have full custody of a five year old daughter, I’ve got medical card, food card, all that crap. I need it because I’m basically poor. So thanks Uncle Sam, basically. Anarchy is bullshit. But you should live free, live happy, there ain’t nothing wrong with the flag.

UT: How do you feel about the Kent scene? Seems like it’s in a bit of an upswing.
MT: Definitely, especially the place we played tonight, the ECC, is really fun.

UT: Anything else you want to add?
MT: We’re so neat. We’re neater than neat. We’re like a well cleaned office. I don’t know, I’m drunk.

BR: I didn’t get the obvious question. What’s it like being the ninth drummer for Kill the Hippies?
UT: What’s it like?
BR: It’s an honor, really. I’ve been watching these guys for like 10 years, and it’s really weird to be on the other side of the stage. And I remember telling Matt before he knew me that he reminded me of Ian Mackaye and he just giggled about it. He was wearing this really goofy plaid coat, and had a headband on, and he was like, “that’s cool, whatever.” But I’ve been following them ever since. Then I moved to Kent, and bam, I’m playing drums for Kill the Hippies.