The Menzingers are a cult Punk band from Scranton, Pennsylvania originally, and have become established in Philadelphia.
Greg Barnett, guitarist and singer, chatted to Red Raven recently, about their history and some of the important touchstones which bring them to this point.
They are about to play their debut New Zealand concerts at the Whammy Bar in Auckland on the 21 August, and the Wellington’s Valhalla the day before.
They were supposed to be here in 2020, but they got caught in the global psychotic reaction of covid. More on that later.
The band came together in 2006.
Tom May guitar and vocals, Eric Keen bass and Joe Godino drums were in one local Scranton Ska/Punk/Pop band called Bob and the Sagets. Barnett was in another, Kos Mos.
Debut album A Lesson in the Abuse of Information Technology got them noticed with impressive accolades.
The producer, Jesse Cannon was moved to say The Menzingers have it all, the songs, the aggression, the heart and the passion that most bands only dream of.
Barnett cites the Clash and the Replacements as the key influence in the drive of the band.
The revved-up Rockabilly guitar sound also has its roots in Los Angeles Punk band X.
They are eclectic in their influences, and their sound is most accurately described as Punk Americana.
Their breakthrough album was On the Impossible Past (2012). Good Things, the opening song is a great Rock’n’roll call to arms, the same way Janie Jones was on the Clash debut.
I Don’t Want to Be an Asshole Anymore (2014) is a song title that early Punk avatar Jonathan Richman would be proud of.
Barnett is a lyricist and favours Springsteen and Dylan. May is keen on Electronica. Keen is into Garage Rock and proto-Punk. Godino likes atmospheric and ambient.
That’s a wide palette to draw from, and it makes for an ever-evolving sound.
They were a hard-working, constantly touring band until 2020.
At that time, they were on an Australasian tour and due to come to New Zealand at the final lap.
Barnett describes the chaotic circumstances. They felt fine where they were, but friends and family were telling them to flee back to the States as covid hysteria was hitting.
Within a few days we closed the borders and the Menzingers had to bolt home. I was at WOMAD. Many overseas musicians stated they had just lost all their appointments, but New Zealand had not. Next day this country folded.
The lockdown era was tough for most musicians as cashflow dried up with live music banished.
It took four years for that experience to result in new music for the Menzingers. On The Possible Past (2022) was a holding action revisiting demo version of their breakout album.
Some Of It Was True was released last year. Recorded at the highly regarded Sonic Ranch studio in El Paso, Texas.
The producer Brad Cook has also worked with The War On Drugs. That is telling, as first song Hope Is a Dangerous Little Thing sounds like a perfect meld of Folk and Punk.
Has the Springsteen style of wordplay but it is close to the Folk Punk of the Pogues. It cements their sound as Punk Americana.
The guys are from Scranton, the home of Joe Biden.
Since it is such a chaotic fevered time, and with the recent failed assassination attempt of the Republican Presidential nominee, I asked Barnett as to how people are coping there.
Polarisation is at extreme levels he feels. There is a fracturing of any common ground between liberals and conservatives which has reached the boiling point.
Musicians get caught in this. Taylor Swift is regarded as a key to influencing young voters. Tenacious D and Jack Black copped an immediate backlash to a tasteless throwaway comment which may have done a Salman Rushdie on them.
We will see a highly regarded Americana band debut here. The Menzingers bring the aggression, heart and passion, the best way to confront these times,
Rev. Orange Peel
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