9/1 Copy Cathouse with BlackSmiths

COPY CATHOUSE WITH

BLACKSMITHS!

Answered by bass player Geezy Rourkler with input from everyone

1. Plug your shit, the band, tours, and the website?

Geezy – Hey there Sludge, we are truly honored. The band ? Ozzissey on vocals, Johnny Marrommi on guitar, Geezy Rourkler on bass, and Mill Warce on drums. We do songs of The Smiths in the style of Black Sabbath, you can check us out at http://www.blacksmiths.ws/ or http://www.myspace.com/blacksmiths We’re in the process of booking a two week tour in early September. The plan is to play Dallas, Austin, and Houston, then San Diego, LA, San Fran, Portland, and Seattle. Check the sites for details

2. When did you start playing your instrument, and have you ever done any original projects?

We’ve all been playing in bands since high school. This is just a ?side project? (wow that sounds pretentious) for us. Our singer is in a local rock band called The Agency( http://www.theagency.us/), and our guitarist, drummer, and myself make up a three-piece thrash metal band called Derailed( http://www.derailed.ws/).

3. Who was smoking crack when you came up with this mix of bands? And what are the chances there is a Go-Gos meets Slayer cover band in the works somewhere in San Francisco ?

Actually it was reefer we were smoking, and our guitarist came up with the idea about 5 years ago while we were sitting around at Derailed practice. We laughed about it but didn’t really take it too seriously because we couldn’t picture anyone pulling off the Ozzy/Morrissey hybrid. We’ve known our singer for years from various local bands he’d been in, Denver ‘s a pretty tight(translated: small) rock scene, but at the time he was living in France doing his art thang (you can check out his work at http://www.richardgroskopf.com/, he’s a badass painter). When he moved back to Denver in the summer of 2002 he ended up working with our guitarist moving furniture. We knew he could pull it off so the idea was revived, we got together and tried it out, and here we are three years later still doing this even though we have absolutely no chance of ever making any money off of the idea. Slayer and the Go-Go’s? The Slay-Slays? Nice, we hadn’t thought of that one. Some other possibilities are Motley Cure, Judas Police, Iggy and The Bunnymen, and The Rash (Rush and The Clash).

4. Name the 3 highest points and the 3 lowest points of the Blacksmiths career:

High points ? laughing our asses off every practice, whenever someone ?gets? what we’re doing, and this interview

Low points ? Haven’t been too many lows since we don’t take this too seriously. There have been a couple shows were we’ve basically been playing to the staff, that’s always fun.

5. You’re into The Smiths, probably wear a lot of dark clothing and you’re from the Denver area. Are you in any way related to those nutty kids from the Trench Coat Mafia?

They used to roadie for us. Kidding, fuck those idiots. Chris Rock said it best, ?There were six of the motherfuckers! I don’t have six friends now!?

6. Pick your Poison:

Wham or Orgy = Slayer
Kelly Osbourne or Jack Osbourne = Jack. I bet he’d be fun to get high with. Dude’s gotta have some stories
Goth Rock or Glam Rock = You could argue that the first Sabbath record was the first goth record ever. Joy Division’s pretty cool too so we’ll go with goth, but corpse paint is gay
Piercings or Tattoos = Tattoos, although they are a bit played out these days
England or New England = I grew up in CT so I have a soft spot for New England, but we’ve always talked about how cool it would be to take this band to the UK and see how they react to it, so as a band we’ll say England.

7. What is your favorite and least favorite Black Sabbath songs (riff) to play live and why?

Hard to pick one favorite?probably ?Into the Void?, Sweet Leaf?, or ?Black Sabbath?

Least favorite I guess would be ?National Acrobat?. Wicked riff, but it gets repetitive after a while, and it’s the only song where we play a Sabbath song all the way through with Smiths lyrics over top. All the others are a mixture of riffs from both bands.

8. What was the biggest crowd, and the biggest pay check the Blacksmiths ever played for?

Biggest crowd was a couple hundred, we’ve pretty much only played small bar type venues. Biggest paycheck? I think $160 is our record. We usually average between $30 and $80 a show. We had no idea when we started this such riches awaited. We’re all retiring to the south of France next year.

9. We heard you released a CD. Would you like to give us your profits or should we tell Sharon so she can sue your ass?

Profits? That’s cute, I like that. As mentioned in question #8, we don’t make a whole lot off of shows (which from what I understand are covered by the venues ASCAP dues so we’re safe). We did record an 11 song cd (available by download at http://www.blacksmiths.ws/) and printed up 500 copies with a pretty cover and everything, but we’ve been very careful about giving them away for free and not profiting from this band in any way. We are all acutely aware of Mrs. Osborne’s reputation and in no way wish to tangle with her. I’d imagine Morrissey and Johnny Marr’s lawyers would have something to say about it as well. It’s all in fun, we have absolutely no illusions of stardom or success as a result of this band. It’s all about paying homage to bands that have impacted us growing up and having fun playing wicked riffs. Gimmicky tribute bands are not known for their longevity, Dread Zeppelin notwithstanding.

10. The Last of the Blacksmiths?

Last time you felt depressed and wanted to kill the audience = Anytime we play in the suburbs outside of Denver . They just don’t seem to get it for some reason.
Last gig you played to an empty room (be cause you killed them) = Actually, one show we did play was supposedly empty because of someone being killed. We were booked on a Wednesday night at a huge place in Westminster (one of the aforementioned suburbs). Our audience consisted of two haggard looking drunks at the bar, one bartender, one waitress, one soundman, and a cook. Oh yeah, and a 12 year old girl who apparently belonged to one of them was running around the place like it was a fucking Chucky Cheese. They said it was so dead because the night before a chick was found behind a dumpster two blocks away with her hands and feet cut off. Whoops.
Last time you had diarhea = anytime we drink PBR
Last 80s hair band concert you attended = Does Kiss count? Couple years ago on their ?farewell tour? with the Nuge. Ozzissey has seen the Crue a couple times, years ago
Last new Smiths song you learned = Shakespeare’s Sister (mixing it with After Forever) and Sweet and Tender Hooligans (mixed with Sabbra Cadabbra = Sweet and Sabbra Hooligans)

Thanks guys great job. Make sure to go check out these links www.blacksmiths.ws or www.myspace.com/blacksmiths as they guys have some tour dates coming up this month.