Triplefastaction....Moo, May '96

Andy, the local Sony college rep, and I were sitting in his bedroom/office listening to some Bush League demos a few years back when he first told me to check out the Chicago band Triple Fast Action. He had seen them at the '94 CMJ Convention in New York and was so blown away that he raved about them to everyone who would listen. And while the world, or at least Andy's friends, waited for the TFA debut, a handful of other Chicago bands, raised on the same 70s AM radio as Triple Fast Action, released records. Bands such as Fig Dish, Loud Lucy, Menthol, and the Smoking Popes helped to bring attention to the new flourishing scene in the Windy City, and it was in this climate that Triple Fast Action honed their skills. Now, with the group's Capitol Records debut, Broadcaster, in the stores, Triple Fast Action is gearing up to bring its testosterone-driven rock into your living rooms, whether you like it or not. TFA's frontman, the ever-charming Wes Kidd, recently took time from his busy schedule (TFA was in the midst of a mini-tour with labelmates Everclear.) to shoot the shit with MOO.

MOO: Today must be a hectic day for you. Aren't you playing two shows tonight?

WES: We did that last night. We did an early show with Everclear and then as soon as we got offstage, we had to run over and do another show on our own. We're so old that we're sweating like freaks, but it was really fun.

MOO: Are you having a record release party in Chicago for Broadcaster?

WES: Yeah. We're playing at Thurston's. I like Thurston's because I know everybody that works there. They gave us one of our first shows.

MOO: I've only been to Chicago twice, once was to see Noise Addict at the Fireside Bowl. Did you happen to attend that one?

WES: I live two blocks from the Fireside Bowl. The Noise Addict show was kind of weak. I was expecting a little more. But, I might have just been in a bad mood. The Fireside sometimes is great, but other times it just seems people are not there to see a band. It used to be great-- they would let people bowl while bands were playing, it was hysterical. It looked like a video. They canceled that because the pins were louder than some of the bands.

MOO: Time to switch gears here. I know your album's release was delayed for nearly a year. How tough has it been playing all of the stuff on tour?

WES: It has been pretty hard just because a lot of these songs are really old. You want to get them off your back and move on to other things. Now that we're getting close to having it released, and I've settled into the fact that it's actually coming out instead of being worried that we're going to get dropped before it comes out, it seems like it's going to be all right. But it has been hard; it has been a full year and that's a long time.

MOO: What was the delay?

WES: We ran into a few recording problems. In order to get the guy we wanted to mix it, we had to wait two months. Then all of the sudden, we were into the Christmas season, and Capitol was releasing that first Beatles Anthology, and nothing else on the label mattered at that time.

MOO: There are some other bands from Chicago who started out in the same situation you are in right now. On one hand, Loud Lucy got a lot of help from the record company and wound up opening for Alanis Morissette. On the other hand, Fig Dish put out a great album, got very little push from their label and ended up touring small clubs with bands like Ruth Ruth and Walt Mink...

WES: I'm friends with those bands, and we all got signed at the same time, so we were all helping each other out and talking about it. It's really hard because I'll talk to Blake from Fig Dish and he'll be really down. They made a great record. They just don't have the support there and you need that. Loud Lucy has gotten on big tours for reasons other than the label (Loud Lucy frontman Christian Lane has been romantically linked with Alanis Morissette). Relationships and love have a lot to do with it. But they have gotten a lot of support from their label.

MOO: Are you afraid that the record company might forget about you in a few months?

WES: I'm a little bit scared that we'll get lost in the shuffle, but for right now, it seems like they are paying attention.

MOO: Is it at all discouraging rolling into a town on a Monday night and playing in front of a dozen people?

WES: People tend to expect more from touring than what's really out there. You just have to play to whomever is there. If one person paid, you have to give them a show and not cry about it.

MOO: It seems like you've played in Ohio a hundred times this past year...

WES: We have been playing around the Midwest with Menthol for a few months. We have just been trying to circle the area, because the label will come see us in Chicago and we might play to 400 people. They'll think we have a big following, but that's about as far as it goes. You go up to Milwaukee and there are four people there. You play in Columbus and there are five. We have been trying to build up a following and it's really hard.

MOO: A few years ago, you were the talk of the CMJ Convention. A friend of mine, who was a college rep for Sony at the time, said that he heard labels were fighting over who was going to sign you. What did you do to cause such a fuss?

WES: I don't know what we did; maybe I wore the right T.-shirt on the right night. One label came out to see us and liked it, and from there it just went crazy. Everybody was calling, everybody was trying to figure out what we were about. Our tape had gotten around to a bunch of labels, and a lot of people had rejected it-- and they were the ones trying to sign us the most in the end.

MOO: Were you pursuing a major label contract by sending tapes out, or did the labels come looking for you?

WES: We put out a single on Limited Potential Records and people started hearing about it and calling and asking for tapes. We were just trying to sell them at shows. We'd send them tapes, because I have no problem with being on a major label.

MOO: Now that you've got the big bucks of Capitol Records behind you, what is the game plan as far as videos go?

WES: I'm in video hell right now. These people talk about me "rocking at maximum intensity" and all this stuff. I'm trying to push it to the side for a while because I don't understand it. I'm just trying to make sure the record gets out. You know how videos can ruin a band for you. I just don't want that to happen.

MOO: Would you say that Veruca Salt's signing to Geffen helped to open the doors for Chicago bands?

WES: The Veruca Salt thing totally helped us out just because people started paying attention to what was going on around Chicago.

MOO: Is Chicago really as divided musically between the rock side and the lo-fi side?

WES: We all know each other in the two different so-called cliques. It's totally obvious that there is a whole other world going on. I haven't heard any flack from one camp or another because we don't cross paths that much.

MOO: Do any of the bands on "the dark side" listen to TFA and vice versa?

WES: I'm a fan of all that music. I love Tortoise, but I tend to think that they're not big fans of ours. Everyone is doing their own thing. I don't have a problem with them, and I don't think they have a problem with us. The only person that has a problem with anybody is Steve Albini. And he just has a problem with everyone.

MOO: Why did you ask Don Fleming to produce Broadcaster?

WES: I was a huge fan of the Bandwagonesque record by Teenage Fanclub. It felt really good; it wasn't just a bunch of songs. It flowed and everything about it sounded really good. We tried to get a hold of him and he like the band, so it happened pretty fast. He is a great guy- totally cool.

MOO: I interviewed a band that had worked with Fleming, and they said he wore sunglasses all day long and was stoned the entire time.

WES: That's exactly right, I wasn't going to say it. He has prescription sunglasses. While we were in the studio every day at 10 in the morning, he would be there with a Corona in one hand and a big ol' fat joint in the other, just sitting there. He was able to do his job; that's just his lifestyle.

MOO: Tell me about your involvement with Rights of the Accused.

WES: Rights of the Accused had been around for a while. They were one of the first underage punk bands in Chicago, and they wanted to add a second guitarist. The other guitarist was Jay Yuenger who is now with White Zombie. I joined the band and I played with him a long time, then he freaked out. I don't even remember if we kicked him out, or if we just didn't show up anymore.

MOO: So did you play on any Rights of the Accused records?

WES: Uh...no...

MOO: Really?

WES: I'm lying. There is a record out called Kick-Happy, Thrill-Hungry, Reckless, & Willing. You don't need to listen to that. It's actually a lot of fun, but a lot of people don't get the joke.

MOO: Broadcaster has a bit of a hard rock feel to it; a departure from the whole alternative thing.

I purposely tried to steer clear of the alternative thing, it's pretty stale and boring to me right now. I've just always loved songs. I've always been into bands, when I was little, like KISS, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, before punk rock, so that's probably where a lot of our sound is coming from.

MOO: As a fan of KISS, are you planning on attending their reunion tour this summer?

WES: Oh God, yes! From what I hear, they are going to put on the costumes from the Love Gun tour and sweep off the old stage set. It's going to be the real deal. It's an all original members, full makeup, full fire-breathing, blood-spitting show. Eight-inch leather heels, man. I saw them when Judas Priest opened for them. I saw them on the Dynasty tour when they were going a little bit disco, so I'm so psyched to see them again.

MOO: Was there a particular concert that changed your life?

WES: I saw this local band, the Effigies. When you go to one of those shows after being at rock concerts, it's such a family kind of thing, everybody knows each other and everybody is having such a good time. I was completely taken by the whole thing. From then I couldn't stop. (Kidd and I briefly discuss Triple Fast Action's show at Pukefest during last year's CMJ Convention in New York. Triple Fast Action was on a bill that included Into Another, For Love not Lisa, Seaweed, Spacehog, and Supergrass.)

MOO: What are the road staples for Triple Fast Action?

WES: The rules in the van are that the person driving gets to pick the music, so I just try to drive as much as I can. Lately I've been addicted to this brand new Emmylou Harris record. I like that Rocket from the Crypt record a lot. We've been on the Subway diet most of the way because it's about as healthy as you can get on the road. We're doing the Motel 6-Subway tour which is pretty cushy when you think about it. It's a lot better than sleeping on floors like we used to do. It was fun, but I don't want to do it again.

MOO: Any crazy, kooky road stories?

WES: There was a scary experience in Detroit when I woke up at about 4 in the morning to the sound of water flowing. It was our bass player, sleep-walking, peeing on an electrical socket in the middle of the room. I was like, "Dude, what are you doing?" He could have electrocuted himself.

MOO: One last question that you'll probably be asked a million times: how did you come up with the band's name?

WES: Our bass player thought of it. I don't really like it, but it's too late now. He always says he just made it up, but I think it came from this infomercial in the middle of the night like that Gold Bond stuff. It says something like "triple action" or "fast action" or something like that.