And I think, in a way, what Juiceboxxx ended up being had a lot to do with that period of my life. I didn’t listen to everything, but I gravitated to a wide range of styles. And that’s around the same time that I started listening to WMSE, which I listened to obsessively for many years.īy 11 or 12, music became a focus. By fifth grade, I had a cousin kind of get me into ska a little bit, so I was already going down that path. JC: Fourth grade, an early CD was Beck’s Odelay. Were you really into music before your teenage years? What were you listening to when you were fifth-grade age? Your song “Fade The Mix” starts out with this really strong fifth-grade memory. You’re just writing, and then later on you maybe figure out what it’s about. You’re not really thinking about it on a very focused, concrete level. When you’re doing that through music, it just happens. It’s been a complex, weird life, and I’m still trying to make sense of it, you know? But when I look at it now as a final product, it’s kind of bittersweet. So I wasn’t really thinking about much when I wrote these lyrics, to be honest with you. Usually you have to work to get songs, but this one just kind of happened. I mean, yeah, there’s nostalgia, but it’s more like the music just came to me. JC: I think it’s more complex than nostalgia because I have very complex feelings about my relationship to Juiceboxxx and to the city and to everything I’ve done. Are you feeling particularly nostalgic for Milwaukee lately? Juiceboxxx was a huge part of Milwaukee music, lore and memories. It’s more about trying to transmit a certain kind of feeling I got growing up, listening to Weezer or something, getting excited about this defined world, you know?Ĭhiaverina in his Milwaukee living room, circa 2009. This is about good songwriting paired with a really defined visual identity - with these, uh, absurd cups that I made. Rustbelt, to me, is a more focused project. But it also made Juiceboxxx fairly unclassifiable. I was able to do a lot of amazing things because I was making those connections between these different communities. That was me - moving through culture in this really chaotic, unfocused way, which was cool. The next night, I’d play a rap show play with punk bands. I would go on tour, and one night I would play a dance club and then I’d play a noise show. Juiceboxxx tried to take everything I liked and put it under one umbrella, so it was really chaotic. Maybe I’ll start a new rap project under a different name. On the last Juiceboxxx record, I could connect the musical dots really easily it didn’t seem like a drastic jump to something else. ![]() The music is just an extension of where I was headed, anyways. This new project is a step, but it’s just like everything I’ve done in a sense, I hope it’s fairly organic-feeling. I spent so many years traveling on Greyhound buses and whatever, doing anything that I could to keep playing and keep this thing going. I wasn’t touring a million days a year I would go out when it made sense. By the end of Juiceboxxx, the thing was fairly focused. JC: Yeah, it sped up some stuff that probably would’ve happened organically, but it probably would’ve just taken a bit more time. How do you move aside from that, other than the pandemic kind of just giving you a little push in a way? Listen below to the Ramones’ cover of Tom Waits’.You were dedicated, dedicated, dedicated to Juiceboxxx. With guitar solos and Joey Ramones’ warbling vocal it’s a fun and fresh rendition of the anti-establishment song. ![]() While this may have been the Ramones’ 20th year as a band and were certainly on their way to rock and roll retirement, they curiously bring a youthful verve to the song. Powering through the track, the difference between the two songs is noticeable instantly and the powerpop style of the Ramones fits the effervescent energy of the track to a tee. The band brings one thing in spades on this cover and that’s rhythm. ![]() One thing that you can guarantee when entrusting the Ramones with your song, they won’t do it by halves. ![]() It’s a song that was perhaps in the wrong hands for a few years because as soon as the Ramones added their own flavour of snotty brattishness, the track suddenly feels wholly complete. A seemingly uncouth demand, the song’s chorus belies the usual wisdom that Waits affords his music, ditching the debate and instead, taking vigilante justice. The song has always stood out among Tom Waits’ catalogue for that very petulance and distrust. While the song is a deliberate arrow aimed at the societal target, it is the chorus that adds an extra bit of firepower into this rabble-rouser and turns it into a bonafide powder keg. The concoction makes the track as one of his most joyous moments on record.
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