Drummer, Alien Crime Syndicate; owner, Sonic Boom Records.
EVENT: Alien Crime Syndicate plays the EMP on Fri April 13 with Shuggie and the Turn Ons AND appears on Mornings Live on Q that same day at 8:30 am.
How was it that you released two full-length albums so close together?
"Alien Crime Syndicate originally recorded an album for a major label, then the label fell apart, everyone was fired, all the bands were dropped, and the record was just sitting there, but the entity that was the label still owned it. We were trying to get the record back to put it out on another label, but after a while we figured we can't just sit around, let's record a bunch of the songs from that album and a bunch of newer ones. We released Dust to Dirt on my label, Collective Fruit, in February of 2000. Once that had been out for a few months, the other record finally became available, so Will Records released From the Word Go in July. So they share five songs, and have maybe eight songs that are different. Confused a lot of people, but it was good to put 'em both out."
Do you agree with the description of space rock?
"When I think of space rock, I think more of Voyager One, the Verve--weirder, longer, drawn-out spacy stuff. I think people think ACS is space rock because there are space themes in the lyrics and the song titles, and maybe because of the light show. But I think it's more pop. Especially a lot of the newer songs that we have that aren't recorded yet are even more rock."
So what should people expect?
"The best five-dollar rock show they've ever been to. We have a bunch of new songs we're going to play for the first time."
How did Q-13 get a hold of you?
"We did a Grammy preview thing at Sonic Boom. They came over and did some of the show live from our store, and we talked about who we thought was going to win Best New Artist and talked about music for a while."
Do you have a favorite Q-13er?
"Yeah. Debbie Wiedemer."
We had a bit of a Leslie Miller fixation for a while.
"I'll tell her hi for you."
