Life In A Bungalo

The Raunch Hands have been one of my favorite bands for quite some time. Their influences are many, and they proudly wear them on their collective sleeves, but they are still one of the most original bands in any sub genre of rock and roll. At the time the Raunch Hands were an active band (c. 1984 – 1992) there was no large-scale R&B/rock and roll/punk scene. Only a few labels had any interest in real rock and roll bands. They managed to hook up with Crypt Records, who put them on the Back from the Grave series, released several albums and helped them tour the world several times over. I had the chance to interview guitarist, New Jersey native and all-around great guy Mike Mariconda in early 2001. It originally ran in Pelado Records’ Rock’n Roll Outbreak web zine. Since then, the Raunch Hands did a short tour of Spain and played two New York City gigs (May and June of 2002.) Mike himself has since become a father and is still active in the Austin, Texas music scene. Check out his latest band, the Stepbrothers, who just released an album on Licorice Tree Records (reviewed on this site.)

Did you guys actually “break up” or is it more along the lines of not putting as much effort into the band as you used to? Why, when, reasons?

Well, we just decided we would move ‘cuz we hated New York, so we were doing well in Europe (Crypt had relocated to Hamburg, Germany at the time) and decided we should move to Madrid. The first to chicken out was our sax player at the time, who was an idiot anyway, then George the bassist got hooked up with Tomoko from Supersnazz when we went to Japan. He went on to marry her, unsuccessfully manage her career, then got divorced. So me, (Mike) Edison (drums) and (Mike) Chandler (vocals) moved over for a few years. It was tough to get it going on over there because they drink a lot in Madrid, so we had more fun than work. Chandler and I did a group called Los King Conguitos with two members of the Pleasure Fuckers and it went over really well, got high paying gigs, played beach resorts, great press; we even made it into TV Guide in Spain (I still have the photo.) We had high paying gigs out the ass, like David Johansen on New Year’s Eve. Then Chandler’s bitch, then future wife, now divorcee, Olga, was a stewardess and got transferred to Mallorca, and Chandler followed, which fucked up a great project. Chandler tried unsuccessfully to manage a Mexican restaurant in Mallorca (a really bad idea) and Edison went on to drum with the Pleasure Fuckers. No recordings of this groundbreaking group, Los King Conguitos, exist, but there are some live videos floating around Madrid!

When you say you got high paying gigs like David Johansen, do you mean you played with him or got paid like him?

No, it was ‘cuz Los King Conguitos were always in demand for big gigs like New Year’s Eve (like David Jo.) We had a great gimmick going, with costumes and fez’ and it wasn’t the usual rock show. We had a really highbrow group of fans, some older people with money, etc. So it wasn’t like playing for a bunch of broke kids, which was the fan base that the Raunch Hands and Pleasure Fuckers usually played for. Kinda like David Jo’s “revue” after he left the Dolls, you know, prestigious.

Was the band working on anything when you split?

Well, we never really broke up. After Spain, we all drifted back to New York City at different times. I swore I would get out of there, so I moved to Austin. A few years later Chandler moved down there, that’s when we did Cavestomp (November 1998) but after the gig he never came back to Austin and just stayed on Bill from the Church Keys’ couch! I think he left what little stuff he had down here. Anyways, he’s like that, moved to and from Spain leaving behind all his shit. So we’re still together, except I live in a different town so it’s hard to make rehearsals. Pay us enough and we’re together like that, that’s why we did the Las Vegas Shakedown (August 2000). As far as unreleased material, Crypt has been threatening to release some outtakes from 1985-1990. The working title is Rare, Unreleased and Unlistenable. There’s some amazing stuff in the vaults, mostly covers, but really over the top!

So who’s doing what, where? Anyone in bands now? Do you all still keep in touch?

Yeah, we still get along great. Pete’s playing sax in the Roller Kings with Andy G. (ex-Devil Dogs.) George is still in Staten Island, but not currently playing. He was in Snuka for a while. Edison’s trying to play guitar in the NYC Sheiks (now Edison Rocket Train – ed.) Take it from me, he’s better as a drummer. Chandler, last he called me he was house sitting two pit bulls in a very dangerous area in Brooklyn. He can usually be found in the Barmacy Bar (now Otto’s Shrunken Head – ed.) or wherever his current girlfriend is bartending. He doesn’t have an address or phone number, but it don’t take a private eye to figure out where he is!

How did the recent shows come about – Cavestomp ’98, the week after at Coney Island High, summer 2000 at the Continental and the Las Vegas Shakedown? What was it like playing together after so long? How much did you practice? Did Crypt put out the live album early for the 2000 shows?

We got offered plane tickets to do ‘em, so of course we said yes. Like I said, we’ll play anywhere, except maybe Pennsylvania. It don’t take too many practices to get in shape, but the problem is we’re spending so much time insulting each other and laughing during the rehearsals it’s hard to concentrate! Last rehearsals before the Continental show were like a Dean Martin Roast – hysterical! So it’s always great to get together, because we always hung like a gang. When we started this we were in our 20’s and we always had a lot of fun, showing up at parties and bars together. We were pretty notorious on stage and off. The live at Cavestomp album on Crypt will be out next month (March 2001 – ed.) and it’s a mutha.

Do you still charge the same rates as advertised in the Mummies’ song “Mariconda is a Friend of Mine?”

Contrary to popular belief, I never get paid anything for any of the assholes I have to baby-sit.

Did your royalty checks ever get bigger than the one on the back of Payday? I’m talking about the one for $6.84, not the $10 million dollar one.

Well, actually we never made more than the $6.84. I think we owe Crypt some $15,000 ‘cuz he sent us to Europe a few times and overpaid us, so the accounting is all a blur. Who knows, after the massive sales of Got Hate if you Want It we should be able to pay off the debt to him, buy a new plane to tour in and probably have $8.52 to split five ways if my calculations are correct.

Did the Diamonds do “The Stroll” originally? Which one of you changed it (and in my opinion made it better)?

Yeah, I arranged it and brought it to practice. I had heard the Diamonds 45 at Venus where I worked for years. Chandler and I always liked really echoy, creepy vocal group stuff, like that and the Flamingoes’ “I Only Have Eyes for You” and “Smokey Places” by the Corsairs. We were also kinda into loungy stuff before it became fashionable. Our song “You Can’t Have Me” was based on that stuff, mixed with an early Funkadelic 45 and some Joe Meek stuff, which I was listening to at the time. Working at Venus while in New York really helped expose me to all kinds of music for 40 hours a week. Got a lot of cool records out of the deal, too.

Who did the original of “What’s the Matter Now?”

I’m not sure, maybe Swan Silvertones? Chandler brought that in, he had it on a tape that Jim “the Hound” Marshall had made for him. Marshall and Tim Warren were always suggesting stuff for us to cover early on and provided (Mike) Tchang (guitar) and Chandler with tapes of cool stuff that really influenced us.

How come you guys never covered “Shout?” It really would have brought the house down!

We did! Only with the spin-off group Los King Conquitos that Chandler and I had in Madrid. Those Spanish kids were bouncing off the fucking walls when we played it Christmas Eve 1993 at Club La Via Lactea. I’ll never forget it!

Where did you learn to play guitar? How long have you been playing? How come you don’t break strings playing “The Victor?”

Been playing since I was 15, so some 22 years. I took some lessons at 15 from my idol, Arnold Freifelder, the string teacher at Pompton Lakes High. He was a cool New Jersey jazz guy, taught me a lot about having the right attitude. But most of the stuff I learned came through figuring out how to play along with my favorite records. These for years have been the Who’s Live at Leeds, Mickey Baker’s The Wildest Guitar, Iggy’s Raw Power, Link Wray, Bo Diddley, Dick Dale, Wilko Johnson. I still sit down with these records and play along as I have for years, they never cease to amaze me. Although I can play every lick on these records in my sleep, I tried not just to copy but interpret them into my own style. I use very heavy strings and know how to play properly, so generally I never break strings. I always hit the guitar hard, but you got to know HOW to hit it. It’s the talentless punk rock hacks that break ‘em ‘cuz they got no finesse!

How did you all meet? How/when did the band form? Influences?

The band was initially just Tchang and Chandler, who did parties and bar gigs and had written like five or six great songs that later wound up on El Rauncho Grande. They added a rhythm section of George Sulley on bass and Vinny “the Animal” Brncivic on drums and got to about nine songs. I saw ‘em play their first show at No Se No and thought they were amazing. Chandler was dead drunk, face down on a table 15 minutes before the set and had to be woken up! The band played great, though, real primitive, kinda like the Cramps or the Fall when they were trying to do country and western. Chandler was in the Outta Place at the time, so the other four approached me about doing a side band, instrumental only. I kinda knew them from working at Venus, so I said OK. We rehearsed about six instrumentals for a while and then we had the bright idea if we combined both groups we’d have enough songs to play out, which is what we did. That’s kinda why we always did instrumentals. Early on I didn’t think it was gonna work because I thought Chandler was a real arrogant fuck, but he was just really drunk the first times I met him. He turned out to be one of the nicest people I’ve ever worked with. The second ever Raunch Hands gig was with me on St. Patrick’s Day, 1984, also at No Se No Social Club.

You guys would probably be pretty big, as a regular playing/recording band, in the mid-late ‘90s with the whole rock and roll resurgence. How hard was it playing this type of music in the ‘80s?

Yeah, wrong place, wrong time! At the time we were gigging in the mid-‘80s, there were few bands who even knew who Howling Wolf was. A lotta Homestead type alt-rock, but nothing really rock and roll. Only the Panther Burns, Cramps and Poison 13. Barrence Whitfield was starting up around that time and the first incarnation of his group was god-like (ex-members of the Lyres and Real Kids.) People can dig it more now with groups like ’68 Comeback, Gories and the Oblivians, but at the time we were playing that stuff, very few people really got it. Now everybody’s heard Dick Dale, Link Wray and Bo Diddley. At the time we were on tour in the states we were always playing with lame-ass alt-rock bands like the Dead Milkmen or Salem 66 because it was all lumped together as “college radio rock.” I didn’t dig the “cowpunk” handle either, and we always got lumped with shitty west coast New Sincerity groups like the Long Ryders, which we had little in common with.

Where/how often did you practice? Play out? First show?

We rehearsed for a few years in Mike Tchang’s asbestos filled basement in Staten Island. His mom hated it, but it was free. Chandler and I would take the S.I. Ferry three days a week. One time he looked so ragged, we were on the boat and he was trying to buy a beer and a homeless woman gave him some change! Musta thought he was homeless too! First shows were at No Se No Social Club until we got our big break at CBGB’s. We enjoyed No Se No - a real den of sin after hours dump on Rivington Street. A totally illegal social club, bands started playing at 3:30 a.m. It was really dark in there and people were always fucking or taking drugs in the bathroom, or just inside the club most of the time, because the wait for the bathroom was too long because people were in there fucking or taking drugs or both!

How did you write songs – music to lyrics, lyrics to music?

Generally it was always music first. Chandler was a real procrastinator when it came to finishing songs with lyrics – even as much as waiting until the subway ride to Coyote Studios in Brooklyn to start writing many of the lyrics to songs. I can also recall him sitting on the floor of the vocal booth scribbling in a notebook while the group was recording the backing tracks – very last minute! But that was how he worked best, and came up with some brilliant stuff on the spot. For Fuck Me Stupid and Million Dollar Movie the band changed our approach to writing for the record, not ever doing the songs live. So by the time we went in the studio, we didn’t even have working titles for many of the songs. The studio sessions always turned into big parties, with lotsa drinks and people dropping by. Crypt house artist Cliff Mott was doing some handclaps, Andy G. might drop in to play a lead or sing back up. We spent a lot of the recording budget just keeping the party going in the studio, but we never wanted it to stop, we were having so much fun making records.

How did you meet Tim Warren? Any good early (drinking) stories with him? Why did he put you on Back from the Grave?

Tim was a friend of Chandler’s in Maine, and they moved down to NYC together. It was actually Chandler who helped Tim finance the first Crypt release, Back from the Grave – Volume One. They tried to do a 60s garage type band about 1982, with Tim playing organ and Chandler on bass. Needless to say, those roles didn’t work out. Tim had always been a fan and a friend and really kept the band optimistic after we got dropped by Relativity. He put us on the comp because he liked us, but at the time, Relativity had more money and distribution, and Tim was just doing the Grave comps. After we split from Relativity, he thought he would like to work with us and said he could get us over to Europe. He had married a French girl, Carolyn (who later married Stiv Bators) and was living in Paris the year before. And he did get us over there for five tours, and we did much better than in the States. As far as drinking, early on Tim was kinda lightweight, so the booze hit him really hard when he tried to keep up with us. There were too many crazy stories to reflect on, but a particular show in Holland with 9 Pound Hammer, Tim had given himself a Hitler moustache with magic marker, was covered in blood (he cut his hand very badly) and wound up in jail for a few hours, still with the moustache and the blood, after getting a ticket for vagrancy for sleeping in the van because he couldn’t remember his hotel room, he was so drunk! This was our label president/European tour manager/driver at the time, so you couldn’t feel too professional having him around, but it was just too much fun watching his antics in Europe every night. The concerts almost took second place to the insanity that happened when we’d hit a new town and do that shit all over again, while still reeling from the hangover from the previous night’s after-gig activities.

Is Payday your first big release on Crypt? What was it like dealing with Crypt, versus Relativity, or any other labels for that matter?

Well, it was like Tim was in the band, he traveled with us on tour, DJ’ed at some of the gigs, drove, loaded gear – so it was really the best relationship you could have with a label. We had a great time traveling Europe together, he was a constant source of amusement. Payday was the first Crypt release and from there on in ‘til the end Tim was there during it all. The people who signed us to Relativity liked us, but left the label shortly after for better jobs, leaving us to be handled by people who had no interest in what we were doing.

What were the band’s day jobs, then and now? Was it easy to get off for tour?

I worked at Venus Records, then later started doing film and television work, as I do now. Chandler worked in an office that sold horse-racing stats (Andy G. works there now) and made pretty good money there. George was and is an electrical contractor, and Mike Edison, before he joined, was working at Hustler magazine. He now works for High Times; he was the publisher for a few years! George and Edison also were involved with GG Allin and can be seen backing him up on a video (that I just rented in Austin), “Live at the Lismar Lounge.” George gets hit in the head with a bottle, but doesn’t miss a note! It was always easy to get the time off work to tour and come back, our bosses were very understanding and even liked the group, and sometimes came to the gigs, but coming back to no place to live in NYC after two months of being a star in Europe was always a bit of a sobering experience. You could never afford to keep a place in NYC and pay rent while on tour, so we were always flopping around.

How did the band’s part in the movie No Picnic come about? Other TV/radio/movie/press?

The filmmaker Phillip Hartman owned a bar called Great Jones and we hung out there, he liked us. He now owns the Two Boots Restaurants, great food! It was a great place early on, good food, good jukebox, deadly jalapeno martinis and we had friends who worked there, so we were usually in there getting loaded. I saw Andy Warhol in there once. So Phil was doing a movie about life in the East Village and put Chandler in a part of it, and the band plays a few songs in it. I think at that 1984-87 time, people in the East Village really respected us as a band that was really bringing that dangerous, real, anti-fashion rock and roll back. There was so much pretentious arty crap back then. People who liked rock and roll were really digging what we were doing ‘cuz there hadn’t been that much of it around. The press picked up on us right away because of this and people like Byron Coley started writing about us. It’s also a little known fact that our first single, Stomp It was put out by Egon records, the first and only release of Ira Kaplan and G. Hubley, who later went on to do well in Yo La Tengo! They were the first people interested in doing a recording of us. Egon was the name of their cat. I guess they made a lot more money with their group than putting out Raunch Hands 45s! And yes, that is a giant mound of cow shit we’re stomping in, a really horrible day for that photo!

What other bands were you in? I heard you were in the A-Bones, and I’ve seen your name on the back of Devil Dogs records. Were you in the Devil Dogs or did you just play on the albums?

I played with the A-Bones for about a year in 1986. I was the first guitarist while Mike Lewis of the Lyres/DMZ played bass. I mostly did production work for the Devil Dogs. I did play on a few songs and did four tours with them as a second guitarist in Europe. I also played a bunch of gigs with them in NYC. I did one show as guitarist for the Legendary Stardust Cowboy at Folk City in NYC (Ben Vaughn was also in that group.) I played briefly with a Spanish band, the Vancouvers, in 1992, and just recently I toured Europe with the Cosmic Psychos from Australia, as their guitarist couldn’t make the tour. I also produced one LP for them in 1992. They were a lot of fun. It’s been great being involved in these bands that are stylistically very different, but I like lotsa different kinds of music.

Favorite band to play with? Biggest band to play with? Play with anyone who became famous?

We once did a show in Houston in 1986 with this group called the Party Owls, they were unreal. Kinda doing a similar thing to the Raunch Hands, but they had two sax players and really played some bent roots rock. A great live band. I always dug playing with the Lyres. We did some 15 shows in big venues in the US with Siouxie and the Banshees, including Radio City Music Hall. Played with Barry and the Remains and the Pretty Things at Cavestomp. We played in France with the Ramones in 1991, that was a pretty big show. We played to 30 people at the Court Tavern in New Jersey with the Smithereens before they got “famous.” Also, we did a show with Sam Kinison in Ohio before he got big. The strangest place was me and Chandler playing a fancy restaurant, Ham Heaven, opening in NYC. It seems someone who knew us convinced someone there we should play. Phillipe, the Indian from the Village People, was the emcee. He was hysterical. And there was other “talent” there, but nothing made ‘em drop their jaws (and their half eaten ham) like when Chandler and I played “Spit It on the Floor” (recently covered by legend Cub Koda, RIP, on his last LP) and other filthy favorites.

What was it like playing Radio City Music Hall?

Strange. Because of union rules, I wasn’t allowed to position my amp until a union guy got off his break to do it for me. First and only time that ever happened. This was the only show my parents, Salvatore and Andrea, came to see me play at. They were seated next to some Siouxie Goth looking fans who were smoking joints! But it’s great to say that you played Radio City. Kinda a career achievement, like CBGB’s, except the bathrooms are cleaner.

Ever play with any other “roots rock” bands like John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band (from the movie Eddie and the Cruisers)?

We did a short tour supporting X and played with Joe King Carrasco in Houston. We played with the Del-Lords in New York. They were lame and very Springsteen.

Any bands or songs you’re ashamed to admit liking?

I have a pretty high threshold of shame, and I have no problem with admitting I like the Blue Oyster Cult, Lou Christie, Sha Na Na, GG Allin, Heinz, Johnny Rebel, the Nice, the Angry Samoans, Bay City Rollers or T. Rex, amongst other bands that “purists” or roots rockers might frown upon. Hey, at least I don’t own a Rage Against the Machine or Nashville Pussy LP.

Favorite countries to tour? Were you always better received overseas (crowd, pay)? Did you ever come close to making pack what you spent on a particular tour?

Spain was the best, that’s why we moved there. France was also good, but not enough garlic on the food. Japan, the crowds went absolutely crazy for us – it was insane, but those folks couldn’t keep up with us with the drinking and drugging, so most of the time people just gave up, went home or passed out in our hotel room. We totally left a trail of vomiting, hung over Japanese fans wherever we went. They were really astonished over how hard we lived it up. We were always better received abroad, that’s why we stopped touring the US after 1989. Financially, we always came close to breaking even, and usually came back with enough money to buy a few dinners.

Did you guys actually live in Spain, or just stay for an extended period of time – did you need a work visa or anything?

None of us got legal, but we were allowed to stay. We worked off the books. I was working as a DJ and so was Chandler. I also produced a few records in exchange for paella and wine.

Does it bother you when people ask about the band’s drinking? Can anyone or any band keep up? I’ve heard the Humpers are notorious.

Well, it doesn’t really bother me, but of course I’d like to be remembered as a good band. Chandler was really the instigator and rep as far as extremely large quantities of liquor are concerned. I’m conservative compared to him! The Pleasure Fuckers in Spain could hold their own. They have Norah Finday, a five times gold medallist in the women’s division. I think that may have been part of the reason we moved to Spain, but I don’t remember, you see, we was drunk at the time. I drank a little after the show in San Antonio with the Humpers. Nice guys, great band, but Californians can’t quite do the numbers like New Yorkers.

Who was the “responsible” member of the band?

Not to say any of us were irresponsible, but our bass player George was the anchorman. Very much in the style of John Entwistle, George was quiet and dignified and always had the shit together. Needless to say, thank god he did most of the driving or I probably wouldn’t be here today. He held the group together on stage and off while the three Mikes carried on with reckless abandon.

Is there a story behind “Hare Raisin’?”

Just drawn from real life experiences from our first US tour in 1986. Sounds exaggerated, but isn’t. It wasn’t from one gig, but a few.

What’s the story about getting a whole town drunk and half of them losing their jobs the next day, from the liner notes of Got Hate if You Want It?

That happened on a Sunday night in Germany. It looked like a dull night at a German youth center in a real rural area, but after the show two fraulines stupidly asked us if “we wanted to make party,” and they had the keys to their dad’s pub, which was closed that night (he was out of town.) Us and some 30 people DRANK EVERY FUCKING DROP OF LIQUOR IN THAT PLACE until 5:30 a.m. – they said it was okay! The next day we were so disoriented we had actually left the town with a German businessman who was asleep in the van. We didn’t know about that until 20 kilometers out of town. Many people, not quite half the town, but the population was small, did get fired because they couldn’t even wake up to call in sick for work on Monday until they got up later the next evening! It was very intense, you know, to “make party” with the Raunch Hands in this manner.

What is your favorite band story to tell?

Monday, the next day after the previous story, arriving to the next gig, which was also at a youth center club that was a converted women’s prison: five Raunch Hands and this German guy pulling up to the club in a really fucked up van filled with really fucked up guys, blaring Frank Sinatra as loud as it would go. When we opened the door, three wine bottles fell and shattered as we got out. Chandler introduced himself to the promoter, who asked, as many Europeans did, and they did the night before, “What means ‘Raunch’?” (raunch not being a very familiar word there.) Chandler looked at him and said, “It’s a little difficult to describe in words.” Then he looked at me and said, “C’mon, Mike, let’s do it all over again.” A spectacular entrance!