Tonight the Muslims are playing in Seattle. No, not everybody in the world who practices Islam, you goof, the band from San Diego that makes nice taut garage pop a la the Virgins, a la maybe Sam Champ? I don’t know, a la a lot of bands, all right? Despite looking like the type of guys who would hang out with my younger brother (who just got a nine-inch-tall oak tree tattooed around his neck and shoulders), they are all stand-up dudes and their new record has been gently kicking our ass ever since it showed up here in a plain white sleeve with bullet-holes in it and we were like, "Did they actually shoot holes in all their record covers?" Turns out yes.Listen: The Muslims - "Future Rock"Vice: Hi band. Are those real bullet holes in the album cover?
Matt Lamkin(vocals): They are. Since we’re basically all broke we tried to buy everything as cheap as possible. The white record jackets were cheap and at that point we didn’t think we could afford to do a silkscreen, so the only solution I came up with to differentiate it from the Beatles’ album is the bullet holes. Our friend Ryan—who started 1928 Recordings, the label that put it out—his dad’s a real conservative dude with a bunch of guns. We thought he’d just let us use his guns to shoot it, but for some reason he didn’t want us to do that and insisted that his friend who used to be a cop do it for us. He used a .22. You guys have been on the road for a pretty good amount of time recently, how ripe’s your van?
Matt: We’re all pretty tidy and clean guys, so no one in the band stinks particularly bad. It’s mostly when we drive by farms where they raise the cows—they reek so fucking much. There are two or three big, factory ones you have to pass coming through Arizona and California. We call them Cowswitchz and Bircowneu.Good one. Do you guys have a network of steady beds when you’re on tour or does it get iffy from town to town?
Matt: Our guitarist Matty lived in this house in LA when we were on our last tour that was pretty much a dump, and there was this one rommate who was just an asshole. They were all moving out, so the place was mostly empty except for this guy’s dumb shit like James Dean posters. We all crashed in sleeping bags on the floor, but the guy came back in the morning and was all pissed off we were there in his empty apartment. He ended up withholding Matty’s deposit because of our "party," which consisted of us leaving a few beer cans out. It was like when a college kid moves into his first place and lines up their empty Jagermeister bottles because they think drinking is bad-ass—the sort of kid who acts like you’re ripping them off if you pour a glass of Wild Turkey out of their liquor cabinet with dice and flames on it.What’s your take on playing music in San Diego vs. LA?
Matt: Most of the band recently moved from San Diego to LA, and I think LA is pretty cool because it has a bigger all-ages thing going on. In San Diego’s it’s pretty much just the Ché Café, but it depends on who’s working there. There are just more bands in LA so you get a lot more bullshit but you also get a lot more good stuff. The Sess is a band from San Diego that really kicks ass. Obviously anything from the Smell scene is usually decent. Lately we’ve been jamming Abe Vigoda in the van.What kind of ink are you guys sporting?
Matt: I have a tattoo of the San Diego Chargers lightning bolt on my arm. I’m a fan.
Brian Hill (drums): I have a kitten on my shoulder. It’s a little blue and purple kitten with blue eyes—a Persian. I have two. One’s named Chim-Chim. It’s evidently a Speed Racer thing—he was adopted so I just kept his name. The other is Tootsie.Oh yeah? Which do you think is the superior cross-dressing movie: To Wong Foo or Tootsie?
Brian: I’ve got go with Tootsie on that one. I’m not a big Wesley Snipes fan. I think he peaked with Passenger 57.OK, what about Wesley Snipes vs. Jean-Claude Van Damme?
Brian: Jean-Claude. His best was probably Lionheart.Really? For me it was Bloodsport.
Brian: Yeah, you could probably say that is a superior movie overall. But in Lionheart he really showed a depth to his work that didn’t exist in his older movies. Time Cop was a new thing for him too, but I don’t think sci-fi was his deal. Universal Soldier wasn’t that good either. He just needs to stick to kicking people in the face without trying to make it more complicated.Fair enough. What’s the oldest woman you’ve fucked?
Brian: I was with a 40-year-old man once.How was it?
Brian: Really good. He knew what he was doing. He was hairy and big—kind of a bear.Are you into bears?
Brian: I’m into whatever. I’ll take what I can get.LYON GALTIER
The Muslims s/t debut is out now on 1928 Recordings.
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Matt Lamkin(vocals): They are. Since we’re basically all broke we tried to buy everything as cheap as possible. The white record jackets were cheap and at that point we didn’t think we could afford to do a silkscreen, so the only solution I came up with to differentiate it from the Beatles’ album is the bullet holes. Our friend Ryan—who started 1928 Recordings, the label that put it out—his dad’s a real conservative dude with a bunch of guns. We thought he’d just let us use his guns to shoot it, but for some reason he didn’t want us to do that and insisted that his friend who used to be a cop do it for us. He used a .22. You guys have been on the road for a pretty good amount of time recently, how ripe’s your van?
Matt: We’re all pretty tidy and clean guys, so no one in the band stinks particularly bad. It’s mostly when we drive by farms where they raise the cows—they reek so fucking much. There are two or three big, factory ones you have to pass coming through Arizona and California. We call them Cowswitchz and Bircowneu.Good one. Do you guys have a network of steady beds when you’re on tour or does it get iffy from town to town?
Matt: Our guitarist Matty lived in this house in LA when we were on our last tour that was pretty much a dump, and there was this one rommate who was just an asshole. They were all moving out, so the place was mostly empty except for this guy’s dumb shit like James Dean posters. We all crashed in sleeping bags on the floor, but the guy came back in the morning and was all pissed off we were there in his empty apartment. He ended up withholding Matty’s deposit because of our "party," which consisted of us leaving a few beer cans out. It was like when a college kid moves into his first place and lines up their empty Jagermeister bottles because they think drinking is bad-ass—the sort of kid who acts like you’re ripping them off if you pour a glass of Wild Turkey out of their liquor cabinet with dice and flames on it.
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Matt: Most of the band recently moved from San Diego to LA, and I think LA is pretty cool because it has a bigger all-ages thing going on. In San Diego’s it’s pretty much just the Ché Café, but it depends on who’s working there. There are just more bands in LA so you get a lot more bullshit but you also get a lot more good stuff. The Sess is a band from San Diego that really kicks ass. Obviously anything from the Smell scene is usually decent. Lately we’ve been jamming Abe Vigoda in the van.What kind of ink are you guys sporting?
Matt: I have a tattoo of the San Diego Chargers lightning bolt on my arm. I’m a fan.
Brian Hill (drums): I have a kitten on my shoulder. It’s a little blue and purple kitten with blue eyes—a Persian. I have two. One’s named Chim-Chim. It’s evidently a Speed Racer thing—he was adopted so I just kept his name. The other is Tootsie.Oh yeah? Which do you think is the superior cross-dressing movie: To Wong Foo or Tootsie?
Brian: I’ve got go with Tootsie on that one. I’m not a big Wesley Snipes fan. I think he peaked with Passenger 57.OK, what about Wesley Snipes vs. Jean-Claude Van Damme?
Brian: Jean-Claude. His best was probably Lionheart.Really? For me it was Bloodsport.
Brian: Yeah, you could probably say that is a superior movie overall. But in Lionheart he really showed a depth to his work that didn’t exist in his older movies. Time Cop was a new thing for him too, but I don’t think sci-fi was his deal. Universal Soldier wasn’t that good either. He just needs to stick to kicking people in the face without trying to make it more complicated.Fair enough. What’s the oldest woman you’ve fucked?
Brian: I was with a 40-year-old man once.How was it?
Brian: Really good. He knew what he was doing. He was hairy and big—kind of a bear.Are you into bears?
Brian: I’m into whatever. I’ll take what I can get.LYON GALTIER
The Muslims s/t debut is out now on 1928 Recordings.