My first Cub interview (Aug. 1995)
R..... & I sat down with Lisa M., lead singer and bassist in cub before their show at Lee's Palace in Toronto.
Ren: What've you been listening to lately?
Lisa: Oooo, well we always bring a whole lot
of tapes in the van, so a lot of them are sort of mix tapes. But we've been listening to
the new Zumpano record, "What the Rookie Did" - have you heard that one? It's
great, they're a band from Vancouver, they just got signed to Sub Pop, they're very poppy,
kind of 60's kind of influenced stuff. And Neko brought a bunch of Louie Prima and Louie
Jordan and all these great old...stuff. What else. We've been listening to The Muffs' new
record a lot, and we were touring with the Queers and The Muffs, so we're into the Queers
now as well. Anything, actually.
Ren: What's your favorite part of touring, cuz you guys tour a LOT.
Lisa: I love everything about touring, there's nothing about it I don't like,
except sometimes I get a little tired. That's not so good when you're on the road. But we
get to meet people, we get to see new places, we get to find out what's going on in other
cities, we get to play with bands we love. It couldn't be better. It's the best vacation
you could have.
Ren: Where have you been so far?
Lisa: This tour started August 1, in San Francisco, so it was along the west coast
of California, then across...played Albuquerque, in Phoenix, a bunch of shows in Texas,
New Orleans, all through the south, up the east coast, Providence, New Haven,
Philadelphia, New York...everywhere. It's been crazy. This our last day with The Muffs,
then we're just touring a little bit in Ohio.
Neko: (walking by) Uh, we should go and eat pretty soon, so we don't die.
We're gonna go eat cow.
Lisa: Okay, go ahead. I'm fine. I don't need to. Nope. See you in a while. (Scott
ran into Lisa a short while later when we were at Taco Bell...)
Ren: So what are American fans like, compared to the Canadian ones?
Lisa: Oh, I don't know. No, they're the same. Sure there's regional differences,
like different people have different accents or maybe they buy their shoes at a different
chain store, but, I mean...people are people, they like the music, and they're into it,
audiences are pretty cool everywhere.
Ren: What's the very first thing you put on tape? Anything, recorded.
Lisa: Oh, ummm. I guess... My family took a trip to Mexico - we drove to Mexico
from Vancouver when I was 14. And we all took turns tape recording what had happened that
day on the trip. So there was a lot of like really, we're all hot, crabby, and me and my
sister hated it, we thought it was a stupid idea, that we were travelling around in a Ford
without any air conditioning in some crappy trailer, and we were mad cuz we would've
rather been at home. It was really hot but it was, looking back on it it was quite a
little adventure. But we had to tape record what happened, and that was probably it.
Ren: What band would you love to tour with?
Lisa: I don't know, we've got to tour with just about everybody that we love. We've
toured with Sebadoh, toured with the Smugglers, toured with Huevos Rancheros, toured with
Sloan, we've played with Mary Lou Lord, Guided By Voices, the (?), Yo La Tengo, and this
tour, it's been, I mean, this is my dream tour, this one that we're just finishing up with
the Muffs and the Queers. It was just amazing, I could watch both those bands like every
night, until I died, and I did it for a whole month. That was great, so .. I don't know. I
guess the Velvet Underground if they were still around. That would be my dream. Watch Moe
Tucker pound those skins every night.
Ren: You seem kind of well known for being a 'cute' band. What's your take on that?
Lisa: Well I don't feel very cute today, that's for sure. I got three hours sleep
and I was drinkin' too much last night. So, I, no, I dunno. It's a media thing. It's like,
I can understand how the media needs to pigeonhole bands and call them girl bands, or cute
band, or riot girl band, but it's really limiting. It infers that we're always, like,
running around with big smiles on our faces, and we're not, obviously. We're just norrrmal
people.
Ren: In a band.
Lisa: In a band. Normal people in a band.
Ren: What's the strangest gift you've ever gotten from a fan?
Lisa: Oo! Once, we were playing in .. where was that .. uh .. Minneapolis, I think?
And some boys took off their underwear in the bathroom and threw them to us on stage. That
was pretty weird.
Scott: Do people mail you a lot of stuff?
Lisa: Yeah, we get a lot of stuff, but we get good stuff in the mail. People are
really cool, they send us candy, toys, and their zines and tshirts, band tshirts and
blow-up stuff. People send me the prizes from Kinder eggs a lot, cuz I love Kinder eggs,
so that's cool. We get a lot of good stuff.
Scott: My sister says she sent you a Where's Waldo book.
Lisa: She did! She didn't send it, she gave it to us. Yeah, in person! On the last
tour, yeah! We got it. We love it. Cool. It's in the band room. Yeah, everything we get,
we keep in our practise space, all displayed, so we can play with it or look at it or
whatever. Yeah, we got it, I remember that. It was the best score from the last tour. It
was amazing.
Ren: Okay, any last words or parting thoughts?
Lisa: I don't know, I don't know.
Scott: What's gonna be in the next video?
Lisa: Um, I don't know, we just had this thing come out on the 24th (of August
1995), a new record, it's a split 7" CD/EP with the Potatomen. So, we may do a video
for that, but we're going to try to record a new album early next year, so we may wait. I
dunno, we may be going out to New York to play a show for New Years' eve. (Drummer in
sound check gets really loud). ... For New Years' eve. And if we do, we may shoot another
video out there, but I don't know for what song yet.
Ren: (Shouting) I'm getting used to the drums, y'know...
Lisa: Exactly. Touring life. Sound checks. Yeah. So, I dunno, good luck with the
zines, that's my only parting thing. Keep it up, I know it's a struggle but it's worth it
and these look excellent. Thank you very much for giving them to us.
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