by Dave Getzoff
The Pointed Sticks are one of my favorite Canadian bands. They were originally together from 1978-1981. Their sound is a combination of pop punk/powerpop/new wave and rock n' roll. After a twenty-five year break up, the Pointed Sticks have recently reformed and toured Japan, played shows in Canada and performed at the Radio Heartbeat Powerpop Festival in Brooklyn, New York. Josh Rutledge and I had the great pleasure to see the Pointed Sticks live there, as well as a lot of other great bands.
Here is an interview with Nick Jones, the singer of the Pointed Sticks. We talked about the past, present and future of the Pointed Sticks.
Dave: What was it that made you guys want to get back together and start playing shows again?
Nick: About two years ago, Sudden Death Records re-released Perfect Youth. A contact of Joe's in Japan, in fact his distributor, asked him if we wanted to go there to play. He said he would ask us, and of course, not having played (and in some cases, not having talked!!) with each other in 25 years, we ridiculed the idea. However, he was very persistent, and by the time the offer got to the point where there was no financial risk for any of us (i.e., he paid airfare, hotels, food, and equipment rental), we decided to give it a shot. The first practices were very slow and awkward, but by the time we got to Japan (July 2006), we were doing a fair approximation of the Pointed Sticks, so, we'll give all the credit for the reunion to Toshio from Base Records in Tokyo!!
Dave: Are the more recent shows as fun as playing back in the day?
Nick: It's more fun than ever. Nothing to prove, no need for any 22-year-old attitude problems (mostly me, but the others as well to some extent!!). Also, how many bands ever get a second chance to do this? And we all have a lot of love and respect for each other, and how and why we came to be here now.
Dave: How did you guys end up in the movie Out Of The Blue?
Nick: We were the hip and now band in Vancouver at the time, and Hopper was coming up to rescue the movie from bankruptcy when Perry Mason/ironsides pulled out. We asked him (Dennis Hopper) at one point to see some kind of script so we would know what we were getting into. He told us it was all in his noodle. I think those were Dennis's very dark days; there was a lot of cocaine floating around the set. Our scene was shot totally live at a free gig on Vancouver's downtown eastside, which, if you've ever been there, you will know is definitely the wrong side of the tracks. By the way, we got $1000 for appearing, which our manager spent on god knows what, and I've never received one cent in royalties from the two songs in the movie. Fuck, we don't even get credit at the end!!
Dave: Have you played other places besides New York and Japan in the past two years?
Nick: We also played 2 shows in hometown Vancouver, which were awesome, and one in Toronto.
Dave: Have you been in any other bands besides the Pointed Sticks?
Nick: I played rhythm guitar in a rockabilly band called Buddy Selfish and his Saviours (with Ian, who WAS Buddy Selfish) from '81-'83, then had a sadly unappreciated alt-country (before such a thing existed!) band called The Hunting Party. We put out one cassette, which is impossible to find. That was from '85-'87. Then nothing really 'til now, except a part-time covers band (Slim Whitman, Zager and Evans, Trini Lopez, anything that we wanted, really) called The Frank Frink Five.
Dave: Is there any possibility of recording a new Pointed Sticks album?
Nick: We've already recorded a new 7" vinyl single, which should be out any day on Sudden Death records. It's called "My Japanese Fan" b/w "Found Another Boy". We decided to stick to what we've done best in the past, which is to make little records. There are a few reasons for that, first being the general disposability of digital music. We felt that a vinyl record demands more of the listener's involvement, i.e. getting it out of the sleeve, putting it on the player, moving the arm, flipping it when it's done. All of the effort involved combines to focus the attention on the music. Also, circumstances (work) dictate that we can't be touring and playing all the time, and making little records 3-4 times a year keeps our hand in. We have the songs written for the follow up single, and a few more besides. Eventually, when we've done a few of these, we'll collect them with a few bonus songs and put out an LP/CD.
Dave: Do you like any newer bands? Who have you been listening to lately?
Nick: Don't really keep up on the current music scene, although I like the Baby Shakes, from NYC, and Rammstein. Too much music out there, what I learn mostly comes from my kids.
Dave: What was it like touring in Japan?
Nick: Japan was amazing. The audience (mostly 20-35 years old) knew all the songs, all the words, had the old singles and other amazing stuff, like street posters you would put up with flour and water that were 25 years old. It's also a very gentle, respectful culture with some of the world's best art, food, gardens, and oh yeah, beer. We really had the best time, and hope to be able to go back again next year.
Dave: Did the Pointed Sticks tour a lot back in 1978-81? Where did you guys play back then?
Nick: Best guess is that we played somewhere around 150 gigs, all up and down the west coast as far as San Diego, across Canada as far as Montreal, and even played 6 gigs in England when we went there to record the ill-fated Stiff album. But not New York until this year!!!
Dave: How did the shows in England go? What bands did you play with there?
Nick: Shows in England were very up and down; the small shows (we played some colleges) were great, playing to an open-minded crowd. The high visibility shows in London were a bit rough; we were nervous, and the crowds were mostly too cool hipsters who weren't too impressed with a bunch of colonials. Mostly the gigs were headliners, but we did open for the Soft Boys, and also the Psychedelic Furs, neither of whom wanted anything to do with us. We vowed that we would never treat anyone who played with us like that!!
Dave: What are some of your most memorable moments of the Pointed Sticks?
Nick: Great moments in Pointed Sticks history...When we won a battle of the bands in Vancouver against a bunch of Foreigner/Hall and Oates/Boston clone bands and got the recording time to make our first single. Building our local audiences up to the point where we could draw 1000 people in Vancouver and 300-500 in halls all up and down the west coast. Playing with so many great bands of the time including the Avengers, the Ramones (the very best punk band America ever produced), Devo, Wreckless Eric, the Buzzcocks, Dead Kennedys, D.O.A., Young Canadians, Dishrags, on and on...Playing to 10,000 people outdoors at a rock against radiation gig in Vancouver, being in Out of the Blue, getting signed to Stiff and going to England, and last, but not least, reuniting to play in Japan and for the first time ever...NYC!!!!!!!
Dave: Is there anything else you would like to talk about?
Nick: Just the fact that now that we have reunited, we're planning on sticking around for a while, and that I honestly think we are capable of making records as good, or better than what we did in our earlier time.
Interview by Dave Getzoff, May 2007
(Originally posted on Now Wave Webzine, May 2007)
No comments:
Post a Comment