All I’m saying is no outside tanks and all ages shouldn’t be on the same flyer, you know?
B: I don’t wanna support a system that gets a bunch of kids high. All for one, but there’s a bunch of venues getting traction where kids always end up fighting each other and getting loaded. Just a lot of drama. There’s no point in supporting a spot where people don’t even care to see you. I mean, there’s always gonna be some people at the front who actually dig you, but when people chill outside, in the corners, on drugs… Those hotspots? The ones where everyone’s NOS’d out? Go to a function, don’t go to a show.
J: A couple of gigs ago, two girls passed out right in front of me.
B: Someone let us use their house to celebrate a birthday party – and I’m all for having fun, but dude. Come on. You light a fire next to a wood fence, what do you think is gonna happen?
J: We made it clear that there would be no tanks, respect the pad, all that, but literally on the neighbor’s lawn foos were posted up, selling.
B: I don’t know what it stems from; if it’s sort of assumed that it’s needed to have fun… But bigger than that it’s a respect thing, a community thing. Not blowing up the show and leaving a giant mess on the whole street.
J: ‘Cause now we’re getting shut down even more; picture 300 kids all fucked up on NOS on your street. What do you think’s gonna happen?
B: Live your life the way you wanna live it. But when you’re ruining a whole community… Not the punk community or whatever, but the actual people that live here. Imagine coming home from your nine-to-five, your wife fucking hates you, your dog’s barking up your ass, you can barely make rent, and you see your fence on fire next to kids selling NOS on your front lawn.
It’s cool that people are getting into this music. But when you see these photos of a big crowd and want to explore what that’s about, I’ll be first to say that it’s not a space to get fucked up at. Not long ago, someone came up to us saying their sister was OD’ing outside the pad; that’s sad. Every time we do a show, the people get younger and younger. 100 Gecs to Deftones to fucking… Mince? I don’t know what pipeline that created, but it’s sad. I’m more upset than angry.
When we first started, it was coke and drinking, which looked ugly as it was; still, at least it was mostly adults. But when it’s colored balloons… Or, ‘Oh, this vape tastes like pussy…’ <haha>. You were just eating pop-tarts, and now you’re inhaling NOS, at 13 years old. “*****’s fifteenth birthday, no outside tanks!”
J: I don’t really have a problem with people who do NOS; I have homies who do NOS, but I have problems with NOS heads. People who just go to shows to get fucked up.
B: It’s also a thing with bars; a show is 18+, but not everyone can buy a drink… So why is it 18? So old creeps can… You know? That’s also what I see it as. These flyers now just don’t make sense. No hats, but your head must be covered…
But that’s focusing on the negative. Now more than ever, I believe that music-wise, things are getting better and better. It’s a double-edged blade, like everything.
Spunk for Dead Relatives Magazine Oct/Nov Release Show. Taken @ Non Plus Ultra by @colebeldyn
B: Honestly, one of my favorite shows we’ve ever played was in Santa Ana at @orange_jpeg‘s backyard show with X-Acto, Nutt, Voodoo Void, The Ragdolls…
J: It was super packed. The PA blew out, everyone was falling on Brian’s drums; he was playing on people basically <haha>, then the cops came in with riot shields… It was such a mess, but a good mess.
B: We saw Nutt later at a Garden show. They didn’t recognize us <laugh>.
J: We were screaming at them, I could tell they were like who the fuck is that??
B: We were throwing things at them too <haha>, I think they thought we were fucking with them. We kind of were… Just chilling with the Radioactive Chickenheads and started yelling their band name again and again. They had no clue who we were. Like, we played two shows together… NUTT!!!
Rosie’s Pad is one of the few groups out here actually doing things professionally, not just ‘Oh, I got a PA system, let’s run a show,’ you know? They’re paying for sound people, lights… It’s crazy how professional they are for the DIY scene. It’s cool to see that.
But besides the Santa Ana show, Supply & Demand was one of the best we’ve ever played, truly. I had foos coming up to me saying, ‘Hey, was that you guys who got kicked out of Supply & Demand?’ The only people who knew were the 10 people who were there. It was all the magazine that got people to ask if that actually happened. More of a creepypasta than anything <haha>.
Banned from Supply & Demand! Read the archive here: <https://deadrelativesmagazine.com/2022/04/05/pushing-buttons-w-spunk-supply-demand-2-4-22/>
J: Since that interview all of us have gotten better.
B: We got a new lineup, have some more songs under our belt. I guess our train of thought has also changed, we’re definitely more mature than we were in high school. I mean, we all have jobs now <haha>, but we still have the same style.
Some dude came naked into my Del Taco recently – my manager’s a single mom and brings her kids to work with her, right? So they were there while she was on her shift, guy comes in with a bag of clothes, starts getting down to his chonies while the kids were there crying and screaming and shit. I was chasing him around like fucking Pac-Man around this Del Taco to get out. It was like 11 in the morning too, over the summer.
Then he ran across the street with a bunch of our sauce packets and straws, throwing them everywhere. I was pretty mad because I love those kids, feel for them. I know what it’s like… Well, their Dad’s in prison. Sorry to air that out, but yeah, I know how it feels to not have a dad for a birthday or Christmas, so I took them to a pumpkin patch for Halloween. I care a lot about them so I had to be pretty pissed, because what if they remember this naked foo in Del Taco, you know?
J: We stuck to the DIY thing. Got better at instruments, at recording. Brian (drummer) tracks and mixes everything.
B: I think we’re more of a live band than recorded. The streaming’s not the same. Cool having recordings out, a finished product of the music you made, but I’d rather have people experience it live.
-Bruno Bones & Jacob Aranda.
Vox & Guitar for
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