Wed 11/23 @ 8:30PM
Among Northeast Ohio’s local bands, there’s no act that has more fun being alt-country iconoclasts than the Whiskey Daredevils.
A year after releasing the punk-minded Nashville Surprise, the quartet — Greg Miller (vocals), Gary Siperko (guitar), Leo P. Love (drums and vocals) and Rebecca “Sugar” Wildman (bass) — is back with its latest effort, The Good Fight. The new project finds the band returning to its unique brand of alt country. The group has booked a CD release show for Wed 11/23 at the Beachland Tavern.
CoolCleveland talked to Whiskey Daredevils singer Miller about The Good Fight, the Whiskey Daredevils’ sound and why the group’s next album could be bro-country.
Congratulations on fighting The Good Fight. At least somebody is.
I’m trying. I’m doing all I can over here.
Tell us about the new album.
We recorded it at Rust Belt Studios in beautiful Detroit, Michigan, working with John Smerek again. I think it’s a very much a return to what we do: Sort of our whacked-out idea of what modern American roots music should sound like.
Why was the time right to return to the quintessential Whiskey Daredevils sound?
I think that the Nashville Surprise record is a little bit denser and louder than I would have liked it to have been. This new one we’re into much more of our home turf of taking all of the stuff we like out of country and rockabilly, and sort of making it our own thing. We definitely did that on this. There’s some stuff that’s bluesy sounding, there’s some stuff that bluegrass-y, there’s mandolin, there’s banjos, as well as big electric guitars.
In returning to what it is Whiskey Daredevils does best, was there a danger of becoming too comfortable with the material?
I think we’re always sort of pushing the sort of subgenre of boundaries, and there really aren’t a lot of bands that do what we do and play the kind of stuff I want to hear. We sort of do what we do, and we need to do what we do well. And at the same time, I don’t think that’s ground that we’ve completely mined. I still think there’s a lot that we can say in what we do.
What are few songs that epitomize the mindset of The Good Fight?
We have a song called “It’s Just Jail,” which is like banjos, ukuleles and mandolin. We even put a kazoo on it. It’s like old-timey, almost a ragtime-y thing. There’s also “Mojo Twist,” which really kind of has a Creedence swampy feel that I don’t think we’ve really done before.
The album cover with the old-time boxer is a hoot.
I like the trunks. They’re great. It has to be a bad idea to be a boxer with a zipper straight down the front. One low blow and you have some real issues on your hand.
As for the album title, what is the good fight?
The good fight to us means we’re fighting against sort of a marketplace which has turned its back on real American roots music and instead embraces WGAR-style country, which is maybe the worse moronic music of any time.
So you’re saying the next Whiskey Daredevils won’t be bro country?
I don’t know. If I had 20 minutes, I think I could write one with Gary. We could knock one out pretty quickly. [singing] “I’m talking about America/I’m talking about the U.S.A./I’ve got my honeysuckle girl with the Daisy Dukes/And I think we’re going all the way.” See I just wrote one right now.
Do you have a tailgate?
No, but Leo does. And I think we can probably scare up an American flag if we had to.
For a band that likes to have fun, wouldn’t the Whiskey Daredevils releasing a bro-country project be the ultimate ironic album?
I have a lot of friends in Nashville who are studio musicians. I’ve thought about trying to collect a group of ringers, getting somebody from behind the board and writing a song like that. Just make it sound as glossy as humanly possible and have one of those sort of like stupid Chevy truck-sounding choruses. Then with all the verses, which nobody ever listens to, we’d make those completely subversive. I like the idea that people singing the chorus of the song of something really horrible. I just haven’t gotten the energy up to make that happen. It is something I probably should do for the good of the country.
Finally, what do you have planned for this CD release show?
Well, look, it’s the night before Thanksgiving. You know you’re going to have a full day the next day with relatives you don’t want to spend time with. You know you’re going to have to face ambrosia, a creamed green bean dish and you’ll probably lose your shirt betting on the Lions. So this is your only chance for fun for the entire weekend. You really need to embrace it.