Here Comes Trouble: an Oral History on the 25Th Anniversary of the Makers' Howl
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NOW PLAYING The Morning Show with Joh… M83 – Raconte-moi une his… Playlist Donate Menu Here Comes Trouble: An Oral History on the 25th Anniversary of The Makers' Howl REWIND 10/04/2018 KEXP With Rewind, KEXP digs out beloved albums, giving them another look on the anniversary of its release. On its 25th anniversary, writer C.A. Coyle looks back at Howl, the debut album from Spokane garage-rockers The Makers. Not too long ago a patron of the bar I tend asked me, “What’s the best thing to come out of Spokane?” Without any hesitation — and not realizing he was setting up a joke — I remarked, “The Makers.” I ruined his joke, but he was happy about it. For the record, the punchline to his question was “Interstate 90,” which actually pulled a legitimate “hah” out of me. (That’s funny, man!) However, instead of basking in the glory that comes with a charming one-liner earning a laugh, the man was far more excited to start a conversation about his hometown’s legendary and remarkably brash rock NOW PLAYING and roll ban d that I h ad referenced. The Morning Show with Joh… The Makers’ ferociouMs i8n3ca –rn Raaticoonn otef -pmroimi iutinvee hpius…nk may have very well put Spokane on the map for garage rock enthusiasts in the early 90s. While the grunge infestation was nearing its climax west of the Cascades, the always dressed-to-kill Makers were on the eastern side of Washington state wailing away, celebrating the menacing elements of punk rock to both friends and enemies. The band’s immaculate chanPnlealyinlgis otf sinDisotenr, anote-fr ills R& BMenu regularly incited both rambunctious dancing and drunken ¹ghts at shows. This year the band’s action-packed debut LP Howl turned 25 years old. To commemorate the monumental release, several people connected to the Makers’ early days have o·ered up their perspectives on the band, the album, and the legacy left behind. Michael Maker - vocals Donny Maker - bass Tim Maker - guitars (1991 - 1996) Jamie Maker - guitars (1996 - present) Dave Crider - Estrus Records Art Chantry - graphic designer Jon Salvo - producer and engineer on Howl Conrad Uno - producer By 1992, Bellingham’s Estrus Records, operated by Mono Men singer/guitarist Dave Crider and his wife Bekki, had established a healthy catalog of garage, punk, trashy-R&B, and raw surf from bands like the Mummies, the Phantom Surfers, the Fall-Outs, the Mortals, and (obviously) the Mono Men. The label also hosted an infamous, semi-annual gathering — perhaps a “festival” by today’s standards — dubbed “Garage Shock,” essentially serving as a weekend-long bender for bands from all over the world to exchange their loud nonsense with one another at the 3B Tavern — a historic punk dive that has since crumbled. The Oblivians, The Cynics, Teengenerate, Guitar Wolf, Satan’s Pilgrims, Dead Moon, Man or Astroman?, The A-Bones, Gas Hu·er and Cheater Slicks are just a handful of the ‘Shock alumni. DAVE CRIDER: “A cassette was dropped into my guitar case at some point at a [Mono Men] show, and it was by a band called The Heymakers. There was no contact information on it or anything. So I listened to it, I really liked it, I said ‘this is great,’ but I had no way of reaching these people. This was pre-internet, so you couldn’t hop on your computer and search ‘the Heymakers' [laughs]. So, [I thought] maybe our paths will cross at some point. I believe it was at least a year, maybe longer, that [the Mono Men] were recording down at Egg [Studios] and somehow [the Haymakers] got brought up. Scott McCaughey [of the Young Fresh Fellows, The Rocket] was there and said, ‘Oh, I know those guys!’” McCaughey would subsequently inform Crider the Spokane-based Heymakers had not only ditched the “Hey” from their name but also had actually been playing for quite some time — touring, in fact, in their 1965 Pontiac Bonneville hearse. NOW PLAYING It should be noted thaTth teh eM coornicnegp St hoof w“p rwei-tihn tJeorhn…et” is key to understanding how the Makers’ ¹rst few releases came about. M83 – Raconte-moi une his… MICHAEL MAKER: “We had a single that came out and an EP that came out on Sympathy for the Record Industry maybe a year before or less than a year before Howl came out. HPolwaly wliasst o urD ¹rostn faultl-ele ngth r eMleaesneu but I think just our reputation from playing live shows had already gained us a lot of interest in the band. I think when we just had a single out we did a tour of the states down south and that sealed the deal with our wild reputation. The shows were really raw; they were some of the most sketchiest venues you could possibly imagine. They sort of enticed trouble and shenanigans.” “At that point, Long Gone John [Sympathy for the Record Industry] seemed to be just putting out anybody if they seemed interesting. To this day he probably has never listened to our music [laughs]. At that time I think he just had an over¼ow of money …. And maybe he had heard about our antics and just thought he would put [an EP] out. But it was very small. He didn’t take a big chance on it or anything, I imagine he just printed up a small handful of them. So it’s not, often times, regarded as an actual release. I think it came out near the same time as the ‘Here Comes Trouble’ seven inch.” “I do recall Dave [Crider] getting a little upset about it in his way, kinda surprised. But he didn’t know what was going on. Back in those days, it was so old world that you would just send in a reel or a cassette tape. You would literally just mail in a tape then they would have it pressed into vinyl. So, I don’t think any of us really knew if anything was actually gonna happen. It was so new to us. I don’t think we realized that there could be some con¼ict of interest by working with two di·erent record companies at the same time. And Dave knew that. He knew we were just kids and had no understanding of the business. There were no contracts.” DONNY MAKER: “I don’t think of the Sympathy record was our ¹rst. Howl was our ¹rst. That’s how everybody thinks about it.” NOW PLAYING The Morning Show with Joh… M83 – Raconte-moi une his… Playlist Donate Menu THE MAKERS AND THEIR 1965 PONTIAC BONNEVILLE HEARSE // PHOTO COURTESY OF TIM ABSALONSON Drama aside, the big picture to an outsider revealed both Estrus and Sympathy were enamored with the artillery of ruckus bared by the Makers. There was a distinct element of danger that came with the Makers and their music. While the widely-accepted recipe of rehashing in¼uences of the 1960s seemingly worked for revival acts like the Fuzztones, nostalgia alone could not wisp the Makers away from their dark surroundings. The distaste for the social limitations in a blue-collar city like Spokane was too real and too substantial to be ignored. MICHAEL MAKER: “We were people who were enamored with the past. That’s a dangerous thing because anything in other times seems better than what’s in front of you. We spent all of the '80s and '90s just trying to be in the '60s. That makes what’s in front of you really pale in comparison. [The '60s era] was such a vibrant and colorful time and it just can’t be matched.” JAMIE MAKER: “The downtown [Spokane] clubs were full of cover bands — bands that were playing Top 40 whether it was actually pop or metal or whatever. It was just radio bands. There weren’t really any places for original bands to play.” NOW PLAYING DONNY MAKETRh:e “ WMeo rwnianngt eSdh otow b wei th eJ ofahn…cy guys who were tough, like a gang almost. We had to ¹ght. We had to ¹ght harMd8 b3e c–a Ruasceo envte-rmyooni eu nwea sh isst…uck in their ways in Spokane. When we played, people were kinda happy but also kinda scared.” “We never thought of our [early] sound as being de¹ned by taking ['60s] mPulsaicy alinsdt tryDingo tnoa btrein g it ba cMk. eWneu were just punk rock. That’s pretty much all we could make.” TIM MAKER: “We were listening to a lot of Animals, ‘British invasion’ blues stu·, and getting into a lot of the more obscure 60s stu· like the Back from the Grave and Pebbles comps. There was a weird shop here, it was half porn shop half record store called Bobo’s. [There would] always be something good playing when we’d go in there. Everything was really cheap so we spent a lot of time there getting records …. Everything you need in one place! But we were too young to go into the porn section at that point [laughs].” Equally as fascinated by the obscurities of the 1960s and punk ethos of the '70s and '80s was iconic Paci¹c Northwest graphic designer Art Chantry. A combo like the Makers represented a perfect match for Chantry. The Seattleite’s works have traditionally emphasized suggestive and vexing visual expressions caged by bold colors. ART CHANTRY: “[In the 1960s] So many bands released so many records during so short a period of time that nobody has ever managed to do a full accounting.