Local Q & A: Drug Mountain

Drug Mountain's debut at The Exploding House on Monday night was a startlingly confident performance; a mix of sax blasts, stop-start skronk, busy baritone lines, and very convincing screams tying it all together. In some ways the confidence isn't all that surprising. I want to go ahead and admit that I have met Bryan Mckendry, lead singer of Drug Mountain, on more than one occasion. I've actually met a lot of you many times, but few of you put on the type of show this guy does. I have been a fan of this man's music for the past five years, since before I had actually met him, when I heard his first group, Blank Blank. As far as confrontational front-men go, Mckendry is as unforgettably unpredictable as the best I've ever seen, along with David Yow and Mark E. Smith. Big praise I know, and I also know that Mckendry can be a prickly conversationalist. In fact, he once almost got me arrested after yelling "Fuck you, cop!" at a cop car...with a cop in it...a cop who had happened to have his window rolled down. So I tried to conduct this interview with a tone that I thought he would understand. I mean, he quotes Wolverine. I am not shitting you:


So, there are a lot of saxophones in bands now days. What's the inspiration for that? It seems like it's used more as a weapon or an annoyance. What gives?

I dunno how the sax thing happened. Bobby (Taylor) was supposed to play drums in the band, but he showed up with a sax instead. I got jealous and got one too. I suppose sax is our gimmick.

You've played in other groups like Blank Blank and Ancient Fistory. One is a hardcore/grindcore act and one is a harsh noise project. Drug Mountain is obviously not indie pop. What draws you to these sounds, and what are the origins of your interest in these various types of loud or extreme music?

In high school my favorite bands were Painkiller and Man Is The Bastard. I can get down to some Jimmie Rodgers, but something about ugly music always resonated with me. To be honest I don't have any real talent, otherwise I'd be playing western swing instead of pretending I'm John Zorn.

What separates Drug Mountain's music from the other acts I listed?

Three years and two saxophones.

The band name itself is instantly memorable. How did you come up with it?

A couple years ago I smoked weed one time and I rode a wave of creativity for almost two days. I made a big binder of MacGyver art in ms paint. one image showed MacGyver climbing a mountain with DRUG MOUNTAIN scrawled across the bottom. I thought the phrase was funny ever since. The [Mount] Righteous dudes think the name is a rip on them, but that's just not the case.

There has been a huge resurgence of bands discovering the joys of recording on boom-boxes and barely functioning karaoke machines. The recordings on your page aren't exactly of the same kind of poor fidelity that these machines result in, but there is some definite clipping and distortion. Is it important to you to have the recording process match the nastiness of the music? What are your recording plans at this point? How do you plan on releasing your music, if at all?

We recorded that stuff on a crappy four track with one mic just so we dont forget the songs. Sorry I don't have Cubase. We're going to Electrical Audio in April to record. If all goes according to plan we will put it out on Real Vinyl, it's a label we threw together with Ben Rogers from The Chat Room and Metrognome [Collective]. There should be some other cool acts on that as well.

One of your tracks is entitled "Milk Is Gay." That's pretty offensive. I'm assuming you don't mean "Milk Is Happy." Maybe you're referring to Harvey Milk? Look, I know there is a healthy vegan community in Fort Worth, yet I will stop short of generalizing the scene there. Would you say these lyrics are pro-vegan? Are any of your lyrics? Would you like to maybe share a verse of this track with us?

One of our first songs was vegan. It was called "You're Eating It." We wrote that when we were trying to be a doom metal band. Turns out we don't know shit about doom metal. "milk is gay" isn't all that vegan, I just hate milk. I hate soy milk too Fuck all the milks. I never ate cereal as a kid just to avoid milk. My mom thinks milk is more important than water. Why would you want to consume milk beyond infancy? Especially milk for some critter? Fuck that. Milk is gayer than a catholic priest.

Your live show is generally pretty confrontational and I've seen you push audience members, throw things at your own band, and try to order food mid-song and just leave the rest of your group hanging. Care to enlighten the rest of us as to why you'd behave so rudely to your staunchest supporters and allies? Is it safe to say there's a bit of suburban rage involved there? Is it all an act or are you an angry person in your daily life as well?

Dude, you know I'm moody as all hell. I've got some crummy qualities but I make OK use of 'em on-stage, to quote Wolverine of the X-Men, "I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do isn't very nice." I'm pretty sure getting all pissy on stage helped me be a nicer guy the rest of the time. I'm not the prick I used to be.

I know you have a lot of roots in the Grapevine/Colleyville area and so do the members of Mount Righteous. I see you're playing a show together soon with Fishboy, who I believe is also from the same area. Do you consider these acts to be your peers pushing towards a similar goal, or is it more of a friendly rivalry?

Yeah, we went to school together. I'm still pals with some of the Righteous crowd but thats a whole different mountain. When Joey [Kendall] asked me to play at Rubber Gloves, I was pretty sure he had the wrong number. I like diverse shows, it ought to be fun.

What would you do if a young fan walked up to you after a show and asked, "You got any merch?"

YEAH, RIGHT.