Sherri and I met up with Houston's Pain Teens just after their show in Phoenix at the Mason Jar last fall. The night before they had played in Tucson at the DPC to a packed crowd, but the turnout here was less than great because of the lame promotion on the club's part (plus Franco tried to dick them out of their guarantee). So we offered them a place to stay, 'cuz we knew the club wouldn't. After a few beers and what seemed like hours of chatting with the band, we decided to actually turn on the recorder and do an interview. Since we had already talked about tons of stuff, these may not be the most pertinent questions in the world, but oh well... it's still decent bathroom reading.

How does your record deal with Trance work?

Scott: We get a percentage after they pay for everything.

Bliss: Touch & Go pays for all the manufacturing and distributing, and we get a percentage after that.

Frank Kozik's done a lot of your artwork, hasn't he?

Bliss: Actually he did both of these shirts, one of which is the back of our second album cover.

Really great quality.

Frank: Yeah, I've got a couple of the shirts myself, and his silkscreens are such good quality. You can wash 'em and wash 'em and the designs will never fade.

Scott: Kozik did a few of our album covers. Like this one with the boy. There's a song, "Bannoy," it's a true story about this kid in Houston who was locked in the bathroom by his parents.

Bliss: He was the scapegoat.

Scott: He was locked in the bathroom for four years. He was like seven years old and he weighed 50 pounds. He was locked in with these dogs and he sorta just talked with the dogs.

Bliss: Both he and the dogs drank out of the toilet.

Frank: He was really underfed and everyone else in the family was really healthy.

Scott: He thought he was only three years old, but he was seven.

How did you hear about it?

Frank: It was in the news. I mean, a kid that gets locked in a bathroom for four years, that's big news in Houston.

Scott: His mom got fifteen years in jail and his dad got probation.

Bliss: He finally realized he could open the window, so he crawled out the window and went to the neighbors and the police came and he said, "Don't take me back to Mommy and Daddy. I don't like them."

You say you have four albums out, but I've only seen the last three. What was your first one?

Scott: Our first album was just done on a four track on our own label. It's a cool album.... Really hard to find. It's got thirteen songs.

The girl on the cover of BORN IN BLOOD always reminds me of Laura Palmer.

Bliss: On the back side is the image that they used to convict Ted Bundy. It's a teeth mark on the body of one of his victims. He bit one of the victims, then they made him bite down and they compared the bite marks. A friend of mine loaned me a police pathology book and that was listed under the evidence part. I made a bunch of copies of different things out of it before I gave it back, and under that, it said "State of Florida vs. Bundy" and then I read this book aobut it and I knew it was the same thing.

Scott: It's pretty incredible really... the advances in forensic technology.

Frank: Yeah, like now they can take fingerprints off a carpet or a shirt. It no longer has to be a smooth surface to get a fingerprint.

Guess it would be hard to get a computer to "predict" the continuity of a pattern. That would seem to take some type of reasoning skills.

Kirk: The advancements in that field as well as many others, it seems, are like the end of PLANET OF THE APES where the rate of those advances equals the rate of our stupidity.

Scott: Like "advances" in legal mumbo jumbo with loopholes. We read these true crime books a lot, and one of the most fascinating aspects of it is how much trouble they have convicting someone when the evidence is so obvious that they're guilty.

Would you consider stuff like that to be a major influence in your music?

Kirk: Not really, not really.

Bliss: I think so! I definitely feel that reading about murders and serial killers influenced songs on our last two records.

Scott: Well, on the lyrics, but I mean musically it's like I try to reach this other plane of consciousness where it's just pure sound. The lyrics came later.

Frank: It's like whatever feels good sounds good.

Bliss: Yeah,b ut I have to use something that I think is appropriate with the music.

Scott: Well it's good that you write that sort of music, 'cuz if you were always writing happy songs it wouldn't really....

Match your attitude?

Scott: Yeah! Like personally, when I use those tape cut-ups and stuff, it's poking fun at media like television news.

Frank: Like our song "Poured Out Blood."

Scott: A perfect example, there's a song on this album called "A Continuing Nightmare" (pointing at their self-titled album from '88) where this guy on 20/20 is telling this really hard, terrible story about a woman who got her eyes shot out and raped and beat and battered and survived. In this stern authoritarian voice, "Sharon could feel the stab wound in her chest. And she knew the man thought she was dead." Just the sound of his voice, it's like that smooth broadcaster voice telling this horrible murder story as thought it was really important to him. It's like the media sells blood and gore, you know?

Like they take advantage of whatever instinct it is that makes people slow down on the freeway to get a better look at the accident.

Bliss: That's it!

Scott: It's like a radio station played our song and it got all these complaints that it glorified rape. Well, nobody complained when 20/20 recorded the damned thing! I mean on TV it's OK 'cuz they're dazzling you with all these images, but on radio it's obscene or perverse or something.

Bliss: Once you capture a moment and like fuck with it and spew it back at them, all of a sudden it's obscene.

Cuz it makes you realize how stupid it sounds now and you wonder why you didn't notice it at the time. You realize it's all a marketing scam.

Scott: Like on this one (holding up their newest album) there's "The Poured Out Blood."

Frank: With Jimmy Swaggart.

Scott: Yeah. He does the vocals and the lyrics on that one! (laughs)

Bliss: It was from his Easter sermon.

Scott: He's like talking about the crucifixion and he's like saying....

Bliss (screaming in Swaggart's southern accent): "One commentator said 'When he would try to get a gasp of breath...." What does he mean, "commentator"?

Scott: Or like the part where he says (assuming the Swaggart persona), "His head swelled up to twice it's normal size and his face would have been nothing but a swollen, puffed piece of raw meat. If you would have seen him, he would not have been recognizable."

Kirk: Ha... puffed up piece of meat....

All: Raw meat!

Frank: Or when the song just stops and goes BOM BOM... BOM BOM BOM... and Swaggart's crying now, "The poured out blood! The poured out blood!"

Bliss: Yeah, it's a real tear jerker hearing it come from him.

Frank: "Yes, I fucked a hooker...." Then he begs for forgiveness and goes out and gets busted again. The cops were behind him and pull him over cuz the car was swerving, and they could see him ducking down and stuff like that, and they discover that his car was swerving 'cuz he was so busy like trying to throw the porn mags under the seat.

Kirk: He's rock and roll, man.... Jerry Lee Lewis was doin' the same show. Jerry was just a little more honest about his perversions. That's all. Like they talk about cops and criminals being part of the same breed. Jimmy looks like the cop and Jerry Lee looks like the criminal, but if ya noticed 'em at all, you'll see that Jerry Lee's a lot more honest with ya.

Frank: "I fucked a 14-year old, yes I did. And I'm proud of it! And I'm gonna marry her!" That's what Jerry would say.

You'd think people like Jimmy Swaggart would put a copyright on their voice if they could, 'cuz they get sampled so much.

Frank: Yeah, now he's probably hurtin' for bucks after all the shit that's happened to him. But, hurtin' for bucks for him is haivn' to sell the 40 million dollar yacht.

Scott: That's one good thing about being in an indie band is you don't have to worry too much about all the legal shit.

What about your Beatles dub, with like ASCAP or BMI.

Bliss: Well, we haven't released that song, we only play it live.

But don't they have reps show up at shows sometimes?

Bliss: No, the club has to pay ASCAP and BMI to play any copyrighted material.

Frank: Not only that, how many bands go out and do nothing but covers? And they're playin' it from beginning to end, we're just takin' a piece.

Bliss: That song is actually a cover of a song that this Houston band Culturecide used to play. They only played it maybe two or three times live, but they released a whole album of songs like that and CBS Records had an attorney call and threaten them. Then one guy called and left a message on their answering machine that said, "We wanna reissue the record that Culturecide released called 'Consider Museums as Concentration Camps,' with a question in his voice, like he'd never actually heard it. They never called back. Anyway, we'll probably save that song for when we get a record deal where they're not intimidated by going and asking for the rights.

Michael Jackson probably owns the rights to that. You'll just have to wait 'till you sign to the majors???

Frank: HA! HA! HA!

Scott: Yeah, we have another album that's ready to go.

Bliss: Almost. It was going to be a six-song EP on Trance, but we wanted to try to get it out by fall and that's not gonna happen.

Was it done at the same time as STIMULATION FESTIVAL?

Scott: No, STIMULATION FESTIVAL was ready to go over a year ago. It took a long time to get out. It was supposed to be out last November before Christmas.

What was the holdup?

Bliss: We gave the artwork to this guy that was working for Trance doin' the graphics on computer. Well, first we were waiting for this artist guy to send us a slide with a painting and he never did, so now we decided to use these photos. It took david like three or four months on a computer. The typesetting was fucked up, but finally it was OK. It always takes so much longer than you think it will. You know, the fanzine business is the same way.

Scott: Yeah, like if we turned over our tapes for our next album tomorrow, it'd still take like four months for it to come out.

Bliss: Our British distributor doesn't want to do it unless they can have four months advance to promote it. We got some of our best press from BORN IN BLOOD in MELODY MAKER and NME, but it doesn't really seem to matter.... We can get all the rave reviews in the world, but....

Do you get a lot of mail from it?

Bliss: Yeah, I recently did an interview with MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL and and got some mail from that.

Scott: We get tons of mail actually, from far away places like Singapore, Japan, Italy, places like that.

Is this your record label, Anomie Records?

Scott: Yeah.

Do you put other stuff, other than Pain Teens?

Scott: Yeah, Sugar Shack, Mike Gunn, Terminal Landscapes.

Bliss: Just Houston bands. We did three 7"s with Sugar Shack and workin' with their manager and she was paying for it, then they got that deal with Cargo, so it really happens.

Scott: She's startin' her own label too, which'll be really cool.

Have you had any interest from larger labels?

Scott: We've got some nibbles, but we're not too hot for signing anything right now.

Kirk: We're continuing to grow, so we figure sooner or later it'll have to happen.

Bliss: We'll get people calling us saying, "Oh, we hear you're really good, send us a CD...."

Frank: If you're really interested, you'd have one.

Scott: Columbia has it and listened to it, and they sent an A&R guy to see us open for Sonic Youth. He invited us up to their office when we were in New York, but....

Bliss: That's not a major priority though. We just want to continue to release something at the time and tour.

Scott: As long as you're on an indie label and your new record is better and better than the last one, that's all you need. We're learning.

Bliss: Touring is great too, 'cuz it's a chance to get a vacation and have it pay for itself.

Yeah, but you won't come home with anything will you?

Scott: Yeah, we'll come home with a little bit.... Not as much as we would make at a job, though.

Frank: Yeah, carrying four people and all that equipment all over the United States, if you break even you're not doin' too bad. It's expensive, 'cuz fuel alone costs tons.

I'll bet, especially with that boat you guys got outside.

Kirk: Sometimes we'll have to fill it up three times in one day.

Bliss: It's fun.... We're hoping to go back to Europe next year and play again. Maybe a whole month.

How would you explain your music to your grandmother?

Bliss: Ha! Well.... My boyfriend plays guitar and I sing. That's actually what I told her, but now she wants a tape, But I've never gotten around to making her one 'cuz I know she wouldn't like it or play it.

Frank: Tell her to sit around the parlor and sip tea while she listens to it!

Bliss: I dunno, we've done some songs that might be suitable for Grandma, like we did a cover of a Patsy Cline song, or we did a cover of a Nancy Sinatra song.

Kirk: Right, but it'd be hard to fill up a tape with nothing but that!

Bliss: Yeah, we're definitely an NR-17 rated band!

Scott: I gave my mom a copy of BORN IN BLOOD. I think she played it once.

Frank: My mom's like "You can be anything!" My mom's just all for anytihng I'm doin'. She'll just listen to it and go "My baby! That's my boy!"

Bliss: Yeah, my family's supportive too, but I don't think they wanna know. They're interested, but... that's cool, 'cuz I don't want to know what they do sitting at their desk, you know?

Frank: Well, I'm an only child and I left home at a really young age, so anytihng I do as an adult is a big pleasure for mom. "Mom I got some tattoos and I got locked up the other night." "My boy! That's my boy! You handled yourself well I bet!" Naw, she actually frowns on that kinda stuff. She's real nervous 'cuz I'm the only child, so she's always telling me to be careful, but musically she's supportive of anything I do.

Bliss: I think I played a tape for my mom once and she said, "Well, why don't you play some real music?"

Do they realize how big you guys are?

Frank: I doubt it.

Kirk: They might realize it if they saw it on the TODAY show.

Yeah, you're just waitin' for that day, aren't you?

Bliss: A few years ago I did a TV ad for my friends that have this underground record store and it showed on a couple different cable companies in Houston and it just happened to show on their cable company and they saw me on TV and that legitimized what I was doing.

Kirk: Now they watch TV specifically to see if she'll pop up! They just flip through the channels looking for her!

Bliss: No, no, no.

What about when you're in big magazines like YOUR FLESH or ALTERNATIVE PRESS?

Bliss: No, my parents are like fundamentalist Christian types. They're not interested in anytihng evil or satirical. That's one thing my parents just don't understand.

Scott: My parents aren't interested at all. It's funny 'cuz they're totally non-religious.

Kirk: I have yet to meet my parents. I was raised by barbarian sex slaves and they raised me very well and I love them dearly.

Bliss: That's true. Every word of it.

I believe it.

Bliss: They fed him to the cat, but he lived through it.

Frank: They fed him to the cat but he ate the cat.

Kirk: From the inside out.