EMP's
Skate Punk
Event
 
 

Cranking the Monkeywrench with Tim Kerr

By Steve Pingelton (Ping) and Michael Cornelius (MC)

The Big Boys had soul; a great big, we-don't-give-a-shit-we-are-ready-to-have-a good-time soul.  They were the first band to put out a skateboard.  I remember when I was on tour with JFA and we hooked up with the Big Boys to skate.  As the Big Boys attacked the Pflugerville ditch my band mates and I stood by and watched for a moment.  What the hell, they really do skate; unlike some of the wannabe skate bands of the time.  No surprise really now that I know Tim.  He is too real and down to earth to for any posturing.

After the Big Boys, Kerr solidified his place in the hall of fame by playing in the proto-grunge Poison 13, the politically charged funk outfit Bad Mutha Goose and the Brothers Grimm, and The Lord High Fixers.  His latest effort is The Monkeywrench which features Mark Arm and Steve Turner from Mudhoney and Tom Price from Gas Huffer.  Imagine three semi-mod north westerners lost on a lonely Texas highway.  Up comes a psycho Texan (Tim) who makes them scream the blues.  Not the sad blues but the "Oh, lord save my soul" blues.  Pure fire and brimstone; that's the Monkeywrench sound.  Steve and I had a little bit of time to talk to Tim about the exhibit and what he has been doing lately.

Ping: I think the best quote Salba had from tonight is that it's like a high school reunion.

A lot of theses people I haven't seen in so long, it's great.

MC: What do you think of the exhibit?

All I really got to see was the punk rock area.  The coolest thing in there has to be Jeff's Teen Idles jacket.

MC: What?

Jeff, Jeff Nelson from the Teen Idles.  His jacket was in there.  Beth was pointing at it and it didn't snap at first.  Then Beth says, "No, look!" and I see Jeff's standing there. 

Ping:  I thought the whole attitude this weekend was incredible.  Everyone was friendly.

Yeah, well it is like the old days.  Everybody literally used to stay at each others houses.  That's why I think it runs a lot deeper than a lot of other stuff, because there really was a close knit group.  In skating and the music there was just a really small thing going on.  It wasn't like it is now at all.  It was such a special thing.

MC: There were no X-games...

People would see you skating and they would be like "Grow up".  Nobody took any of this very seriously at all.  Not at all. 

It's kinda the same thing with that book Fucked up and Photocopied.  It is so funny to be looking at that and think that you put a flier together for a show just to kind of shock somebody and now it is in an art coffee table book. 

Now people are asking a lot of questions about the whole scene, the old hardcore.  I'm honored.

MC: Did you know that this is a permanent exhibit?

Yeah, I knew that because they got that Big Boy's board from me. 

MC: How did Monkeywrench get such a hectic schedule?

I think it was because people liked the original record.  We only played up here (in Seattle) three or four shows so nobody else ever saw us.  Now that this came out everybody got excited and happy that it was really going to happen.  Then we realized that if we could work it out we would go to places, so that is why this started up.  And plus, you know, Mark and Steve being in Mudhoney- they had a pretty big base of people...

MC: How did you get booked in Japan?

Well the Lord High Fixers had been to Japan twice.  We had already gone.  And I had recorded a bunch of Japanese bands so we were connected like that.  I'm kinda the one that got us to Japan, which is pretty funny.  We are going over there with this guy named Nono who is a manager for...

Ping: Do you come to Seattle very often?

I have been coming a lot to record bands and stuff.  That is kinda why they wanted to this (EMP show) too

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