NO-FI "MAGAZINE"
interview with
Interview by Chris Beyond
Conducted on the Corner of Hollywood & Vine,
Hollywood, 1999
I first met Kedron at one of the zinefests at Golden Apple Comics on Melrose in Hollywood. later I found out that she is a member of the band MENTHOL HILL and since then they've played a few NO-FI shows. Their music ranges from spooky to campy, but it's all for fun. We did this interview on the corner of Hollywood and Vine while waiting for a VERY LARGE ARRAY show at Jack's Sugar Shack.
E = Eric Forst (Guitar/Vocals)
K = Kedron Parker(Bass/Vocals/Save The World Girl)
M = Mark Mastopietro (Guitar/"I Make Signs")
C = Chris Beyond (Always feel like I'm bothering them for some reason.)
(As we begin the interview on Hollywood Blvd in front of the Cave Theatre, there is a large film production taking place behind us for a movie called "F.M. Rocks" [Sounds like a great movie, huh].)
C: Describe the beginning of MENTHOL HILL.
E: The meaning?
C: The beginning.
E: Um, I was living in Texas and I came to California to take care of my grandmother's `86 Cutlass Sierra and I met a girl named Kim who became my wife and I basically moved out here to be with her. After I moved out here I started to put a band together. I met a drummer named Brian Glascock who was the drummer of MENTHOL HILL for about four years till about six months ago and we had various members of the band for a couple years including John Conners and Sheri and that was the band and also Lisa Nardoni who plays in PONG was in the band for about 6 months. She was our first bass player.
C: Menthol switcherooie!
E: And then Sheri decided to leave the band in `96 to play with MADIGAN. And Kedron just moved here as her room-mate...
K: I went to the Impala Cafe in Japan-town the second week that I was here...my little sister happened to be in town...and I show up and meet Eric and I was completely amazed that Eric had actually heard of my....
E: I heard her tape called "The 12 Minute Miracle" and I thought it was amazing and Sherry said, "Hey, you know this persons been out here. I'm quitting the band, but you should check her out," and so I liked what she was doing and she came and saw us and liked what we were doing and that was our last show with Sherry and then Kedron and I started playing together and we wrote a few songs for 3 or 4 months and then as a three piece with Brian we recorded a few songs. In the meantime we had four tracked a bunch of stuff and put it out as "Sextra Cracktiss" on CD. Songs that Kedron and I did, but also stuff I did with Sheri and John. It's a retrospective of the first 2 or 3 years of the band.
C: See, you could have put it out as MENTHOL HILL "The Retrospective" for you FIRST album!
E: Yeah "The Early Years." (Laughing ensues) They were songs between 95 and ninety...seven...wait...right...97 is when we did the last stuff on there with Lorenzo. We spent 9 months mastering it and it finally came out in 98 and so MENTHOL HILL started in early 95 in April of 95 and now it's four years later and we're...
K: Wait, your missing a piece of the pie here!
C: No, that's it! (pretending to walk away)
E: Yeah and Mark joined in early 98.
C: And he carries his own Altoids around with him.
K: That's when we kind of took off sound-wise, I think.
E: Yeah we were a three piece for a year...
K: And then we became a power-house.
M: By the way Brian played with Iggy and did some stuff with Dolly Parton... (Kedron laughs out loud because it's true!) and THE MOTELS.
E: He was in THE MOTELS for years. He's on our NEW record...he played half the songs on the new record and we got a new drummer in February named Craig who's on the other half of the record and there's 14 songs and were about to start mixing them...
C: Yeah, make a third half.
M: Three halves?
C: Yeah a CD and a half. No ones done it, but you guys can.
E: That's your basic chronology of the band.
C: (Looking at my watch) I GUESS!! That's like ALL my questions. The interview is over! Which one of you is the toughest?
E: Mark is definitely. Big time.
M: Eric would definitely kick my ass...if that's what you mean. Do you mean emotionally?
K: Mark waits outside the clubs and beats people up as they leave in the parking lot.
M: Yeah I do. I enjoy it a lot.
K: I kiss everybody to make them feel better afterwards.
C: That's...that's disturbing.
(Everyone cracks up)
C: Which one of you is the roughest?
M: That would be Kedron. She doesn't like it smooth.
K: No, I don't shave.
M: She doesn't like it soft. That's actually a Tina Turner thing.
C: Isn't Tina Turner bald under her wigs?
(True story! Due to bleaching I think.)
M: Really?
K: I'm all about Tina Turner.
C: Well you're not bald under your wigs, though. I think.
(I pull Kedron's hair)
K: I'm not bald.
C: Ok, ummm...
M: Who's the gruffest right?
C: No...what's your favorite song that you play and why?
K: "Highway" for most of my experience is my favorite song.
C: That they have a video for...sorry I cut you off. It's all about me. I just wanna hear myself on tape while I type this.
K: I think now my new favorite is 16 Cutlass. What do you guys think?
M: Well live I love to do "How The Allies Smashed The Japanese Empire" cuz we can really get...start bashing our guitars and making a lot of racket... Really annoying people.
K: Mark buys a lot of gear then he destroys it.
E: My favorite song right now is "Tight Lips" just because I wrote it about four years ago and we finally recorded it.
(We are interrupted by loud movie people on bullhorns.)
C: Um...do you ever get horny on stage?
M: I usually don't wear any underwear when we play live.
K: We know that we've been a successful band when all the girls take their shirts off and throw their panties on stage.
C: That was me. Sorry.
E: I usually get corny on stage. No, I've never gotten horny on stage. I've just gotten sweaty.
C: Ewwww. I didn't want to hear that. Well if you WERE to get horny what stage would make you the horniest?
K: Mr. T's! Mr. T's is definitely where the hormones are raging for me.
E: I get pretty horny at Mr. T's.
K: I don't know if it's the guys at the bar...
E: Yeah Arlo. I get the horniest backstage at Mr. T's back in the...
M: No, we get the highest!
C: I just know about the old guys at the bar. A lot of old!
M: Yeah there's a lotta¼ old back there.
E: The smell of old bowling shoes. If you've ever been behind the stage at Mr. T's, there's a lot of old weird stuff.
K: And porn magazines in case you're horny.
C: That's creepy.
K: Make yourself at home.
C: I will...the next time I go there.
E: Take home a bowling pin.
C: What's the wackiest thing that's ever happened to you?
M: Within the band?
C: In general...cuz it's the wacky issue.
M: I remember one time at the pier in Santa Monica I was walking into this outhouse and there was this turd about 5 inches tall... It was standing upright right in front of the bowl! I'm walkin' in and, "What the hell?!?" There it was! It was just standing upright...proud, tall and it was just sitting there.
C: Did it go, "Howwwwdee Ho?"
M: Yeah, it should have, but it didn't. I thought that was kind of wacky.
E: (astonished) Yeah that's pretty wacky...I...uh...I'm stunned!
K: One wacky thing that really touched me was any time I go to the classroom at Widney Highschool (More on that later) there's this particular girl...I think she has cerebral pulsey and some retardation as well...and she had a crush on Brian. Every time she she's him she asks him to dance. Doesn't matter what's going on in the classroom...if there's music or conversation or what! She takes Brian's hand and they waltz...and they continue to waltz and she just screams with delight! It's the most beautiful and wacky thing. Brians just a total gentleman.
C: I'd be afraid if someone were just screaming constantly like "Aaauuuuuugggghhh!"
K: Screaming with delight.
C: Ok. But you can tell there's joy!
E: There's a lack of wackiness in my life.
C: But there is...you have a bird now! Explain the bird.
E: Oh, my wife is pregnant, but she's having a bird.
(That's what the X-Rays looked like, I guess. He didn't really re-iterate for the interview.)
M: Any good Ann Magnuson Stories?
E: Heh heh...um...don't go there Mark. They weren't exactly wacky, but I used to date Ann.
C: She's a cutey.
E: She's pretty wacky. That's actually one of the wackiest things that's happened in my life. Yeah yeah.
K: You played with the frogs!
E: I played with the frogs! I was in THE FROGS. We opened for THE SMASHING PUMPKINS in Milwaukee at a club called The Unicorn. I wore an orange satin jacket with tails with no shirt on underneath and the drummer had a pink afro on and blackface and Jimmy the guitar player had tails on also. THE FROGS were a wacky band.
K: They are like fags to the 10th! Oh man. They are FAGS! THE FROGS are FAGS!
C: But in a good way!
K: It's beautiful. No they are fags in a faggy way!
C: Ok...an THAT note...name the best video game ever.
K: Ms. Pac-man. The only feminist video game. I can kick anybody's ass at it.
C: Ok, I will ask you how you can explain that.
K: First of all it's the only video game with a female lead who eats everything and she chases men and ghosts.
E: Scramble. You had to fly a kind of spaceship/plane through a maze and drop bombs on things. It's great. Back in the eighties. I haven't played a video game in about 10 years, so...
(We witness a girl walk into the street and bend down to pick something up. As she does a crane camera from the set swings just above her head by a couple inches. I think she was just a bystander off the street.)
E: Wow. Some girl almost got decapitated!
C: We almost witnessed DEATH!
(We talk for a little bit and calm our nerves)
M: You know I don¼t have a favorite video game.
E: Donkey Kong was great. I'm into the old ones. Asteroids, Pong, Scramble... I'm strictly old school.
(We walk back to Jack's Sugar Shack)
C: Tell us about any side projects you got goin' on.
M: I play in a band called SCENIC and we're gonna record an album next month and I'm in a band called EILEEN that's gonna record an album next month. AND I'm in a band called NOG.
E: NOG?
M: NOG. N-O-G.
E: I like NOG. That's it? You¼re only in 4 bands?
M: Yeah I know.
C: I know what you're in Kedron, but let the readers know.
K: I'm in an Italian folk group it's more like a tambourine band called MUSICANTICA. I play an instrument called a poodie-poo which is a Sparklets water bottle attached to a bamboo umbrella attached to a broken stick which I rub up and down between my knees with a wet sponge.
C: I've seen you play that.
K: And I'm in THE KIDS OF WIDNEY HIGH which is the special-ed class for Widney High school that write and sing their own songs with a rock band behind them.
(She plays bass)
E: I'm having a baby in about 6 months. That'll definitely be my main side project. I write poetry on the side, but I don't have any side musical projects.
C: YOU'RE having a baby? Favorite 70s tv show?
E: Match Game `76.
C: See it¼s got that `76!
M: Starsky And Hutch for me! "Hey Starsk!"
C: You have that Starsky And Hutch look to you!
M: