|
Testify! A Conversation with Mike Gabriel of The Sermon By Paul Gaita _____________________________________________________________________________________ |
|
|
San Francisco’s The Sermon slings
menacing garage-punk shot through with a mile-wide streak of ‘60s R&B
groove. It’s a lethal combo that has endeared the group to the black hearts of night creatures on the Left Coast, in particular Mr. Jello Biafra, whose Alternative Tentacles label released their debut CD, Volume. The Sermon’s maraca-shaking, theremin-wailing frontman, Mike Gabriel took the time to spill his guts to Sleazegrinder.com on a variety of subjects, from the influence of Shelly Winters on his band to the absolute necessity of getting the ladies to dance to your music. |
 |
|
Paul Gaita: Since you’re The Sermon, give my poor sinning soul your best fire and brimstone sermon on why I should part with my hard-earned money and buy Volume. Mike Gabriel: Well, we're not the kind of band that goes in for that type of secular theatrics. We took the name from the Jimmy Smith Blue Note record The Sermon! If you're not familiar with it, it was the first jazz record to make real strides in legitimizing the use of the Hammond organ. Around that time, piano was the dominant
preference, so The Sermon! is arguably the most important record of the
genre. Sorry though, that's about as close as we get to proselytizing. I
think I can speak on behalf of the band and say that we feel Volume is a
solid album from start to finish. The feedback and reviews we've been
getting have been real positive. |
|
|
PG: Tell us exactly what we’ll find
on “The Other Side of the Mirror,” and if we should be afraid or not.
MG: The lyrics to
that song came about after watching some awful Shelly Winters
horror movie. She plays a lonely, unstable widow who every year hosts a
holiday party for the town orphanage, where she feeds them and gives them
presents. (If memory serves me right, the character also keeps the corpse
of her dead child in a crib somewhere in the house.*) |
 |
|
She had a real vacant look and off-kilter delivery, you know, just the thing to do in front of the kids. I was knocked-out by it and knew I'd have to use it somewhere. Musically, I think Matt (guitar) and Rob (drums) had an arrangement for a song pretty much worked out right around then. The lyrics seemed to fall into place. PG: Tell us about working with Jello Biafra. MG: Funny thing about Jello, I don't think he ever answers the telephone. When you call him at home, you get a 3 to 4 minute political message on the answering machine, which is always pretty entertaining and informative — the first time. He is kind of hard to get ahold of, to tell you the truth, but he's been really great. Very supportive and very honest. He made some great suggestions with the recordings, track order and in the mastering; and he seems to sincerely care about the welfare of the band. To their credit, the entire Alternative Tentacles staff has been fantastic to work with, too. In no way did I see them trying to capitalize on any sort of renewed “garage rock” interest that might exist with the general public. They thought we turned in a great record, regardless of genre or whatever term music journalists decide to place on it, and are 100% behind it. Just about every suggestion that I put to them has met with approval, from 180-gram vinyl to poster inserts to the limited edition CD tin package. It does help that I work in a design field and that we primarily use black and white as our color scheme. When we were sending the unmastered version of the record around to different labels, we put the CD in a silver tin, similar to the ones you get in the mail from internet companies, and created a booklet with reviews, a bio and some reference material. There were small reproductions of fliers, a button, a magnet and a short letter of intent inside there as well. Jello was into the packaging and expressed an interest in retaining some of those elements, so we split the cost and did a limited run of 500 CDs in a similar format. I never expected any record label to incur the cost of producing a package like that but they were excited about it and willing to give it a shot. No other record label we talked to was willing to pursue that idea. The limited edition comes in a metallic tin with a stenciled lid and contains a CD, booklet, one of nine black-ink-on-black-paper inserts, a sticker and two buttons (one Sermon, one Alternative Tentacles Records). They are hand-numbered and are only available through the band or ATR mail order. PG: How should I psychically prepare myself for a Sermon live show? MG: Bring earplugs. And keep an eye on the stage. Stands are always getting knocked over, maracas and tambourines get splintered and shattered. It can be real chaotic at times.___________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
PG: When you’re on the road, what
music is in constant rotation in the Sermon-Mobile? MG: We all have real varied tastes. There is a faction of the group that is really into obscure mid-'60s to early '70s soul/R&B/funk 45rpms (Harvey Scales and the Seven Sounds, The Mohawks, Marvin Homes and the Uptights), and as well as records put out by Stax/Volt and Motown. There is another side that is into early Small Faces, Pretty Things and the first few Alice Cooper records, like "Pretties for You", "Easy Action" and "Love it to Death". Most of us listen to free jazz--I guess the seminal players like Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, and Pharaoh Sanders. We all seem to have a common interest in early Who |
|
and late-era Yardbirds
recordings as well as the usual garage/punk rock staples--Stooges,
MC5, 13th Floor Elevators and The Velvet Underground. Right now I'm listening to a lot of Q65, Eric Dolphy and a handful of Zeppelin ‘68 and ‘69 bootlegs, especially the Texas International Pop Festival. PG: Give us the demographic breakdown of Sermon fans. MG: Well, in the beginning we were playing with bands that were a bit truer to a '60s garage sound, so our following grew out of that. We were covering Screaming Lord Sutch and two Yardbirds songs then, as well as some amped-up Otis Redding. Later on the material developed a bit more swagger, since we've always felt that people, especially the girls, should be able to move around to it. That sound seemed to fit in well with people who were into rock and roll and ‘60s soul. We've played great shows with diverse bands (Mudhoney, The Dirtbombs, Dead Moon, Rezillos, Comets on Fire), so we see all types of people, those who are into rock and roll as well as '70s punk and '60s psych/garage. PG: Any freaks? MG: Yeah, sure. PG: Who would you stalk, if you could? MG: I don't know. That's not really my scene. PG: What’s more important -- great songs or great outfits? MG: I guess that all depends on if you want to be
on TV or not. In this day and age, it seems like you need both. When it
comes to stage clothes, we have an all-black policy. Everyone is free to
add their particular style, but we've decided to wear black. We're not the
first and we won't be the last, but it seems to have worked for us. To
answer the question, I think I'd have to say great songs, though. |
|
|
PG: Define a “Tender Sin,” and how
does one atone for it? MG: When the band is fleshing out new material, I try to find words to use as placeholders until I can buy some time and get the lyrics together. Often I'll use the title of something I've read recently, usually in the chorus, and see if anything develops. Of Tender Sin is the title of a noir/crime novel written by David Goodis. He's usually regarded on the same level as Jim Thompson and Charles Willeford, two other American crime writers of about the same era, but Goodis has a reputation as being both the most poetic and most doomed of that lot. Of Tender Sin in particular is loaded with paranoia and desperation, and is probably his most psychologically tortured novel. |
 |
|
With the song lyrics, I attempted to
pick-up that thread. Actually, the lyrics to a number of songs on
Volume have literary reference points: “Time Has Come”
was inspired by an L.A. cop novel by Joseph Wambaugh called The
New Centurions; "No Beast So Fierce" is a homage to a
bank robber named Edward Bunker who wrote several exceptional books
regarding his personal experiences with armed robbery, jail and murder
**; “Exterminator” is about
William Burroughs' early career spreading (and injecting) a pesticide
called 'pyrethrum' which was made from chrysanthemum flowers; and “491”
is the name of a banned book by a writer named Lars Gorling who
wrote about gangs and juvenile delinquency in Sweden in the 1960s. PG: Which Sermon song are you most proud of? MG: I like the way “Mirror” and “No Beast So Fierce” turned out. There is a handful that were written and recorded after the LP was released that are also really strong. I hope they surface one of these days. “Hand to Hand,” which everyone just about disowned, turned out surprisingly well, too. PG: What stupid and pointless moment in the band’s existence are you most proud of? MG: I think one of the guys answered this best in another interview when he said that there are five very strong-willed personalities involved in this band, and therefore the process of going from idea or concept to finished product takes much longer. Things could have and should have happened sooner for us. PG: Karen from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Poison Ivy? MG: Jane Birkin, 1968. Though I'm sure they are all quite nice. *** PG: Movie remakes are bullshit, but if each of you could star in the remake of your choice, what would it be and which role would you play? MG: That's a
good one. I'd say Alain Delon in Jean-Pierre Melville's
Le Samourai for the best, if only, somnambulistic, existential
hit man performance, ever. If not that then Steve McQueen in
Bullitt, but I bet everyone gives that answer. |
|
 |
PG: I’m in San Francisco for 24
hours and have two grand to spend and nothing but bad intentions. Tell me
how I can blow that cash in as rock and roll a way as possible in your
town (renting an apartment is not an acceptable answer). MG: You would probably blow the same amount of cash in the same way as you would in your town, but have half the fun. PG: What’s the most evil thing you’ve ever done to anyone who’s deserved it? MG: One time when I was flat broke, I took a job in a high-end retail store that sold art objects and |
|
expensive dining ware. It was a
close-out situation where the store was going out of business. I remember
telling the customers that some of the more exotic-looking pieces were
made out of human bone. You wouldn't believe how flipped-out and shocked
these well-to-do people became after hearing something like that. It was
great, but not that “evil.” I guess those people only had it half-coming
to them. PG: How about anyone who hasn’t deserved it? MG: Well, I once shot a film where I had the lead actor wear a sport coat that was dressed with rotting meat. It was safety-pinned on there and I had him run around terrorizing people on a crowded sidewalk. It was in Pittsburgh, PA on a real hot afternoon in August. It was pretty disgusting when I think about it, not only for him, but for the rest of the cast and crew. PG: God is punishing you for your sins by making you perform a set comprised entirely of songs that you despise. Please give us your set list. MG: I remember being shuttled around in my parents’ car back in the early '80s and always hearing the absolute worst junk on the radio. There was this one song called “’65 Love Affair” that really got under my skin. Does anyone remember that? God, it was terrible. I don't know who sang it (country singer Paul Davis—PG). Also from around that same time, “The Boy from New York City” by Manhattan Transfer? That's got to be on the list. “We Built this City” by Starship, and “Don't Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin, too. I also just can't stand any version, ever of “Day-O/The Banana Song” or whatever it's called. And “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. That one sends me up a wall. PG: What’s next on your list of world domination plans? MG: Well, Alternative Tentacles is working on a SxSW showcase so it would be cool to do that. There has also been some talk of going over to Europe, which would be great if we could make it happen. PG: How can people send you e-mails, underwear, fetish dolls, etc? MG: Mike Gabriel
c/o GSP We fought it for a while but we do have a website:
www.thesermon.com. E-mail can be sent to either:
the_sermon@hotmail.com or
the_sermon@excite.com. One works better than the other but I forget which. |
|
|
NOTES: * I think this is Who Slew Auntie Roo?, which is out on DVD from MGM. **He also played Mr. Blue in Reservoir Dogs. *** To quote Ms. Ivy, you’ve got good taste. -FIN- -Paul Gaita - Pix by Jeremy Harris ______________________________________________________________________________________ |
|
