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ACT II:
THE MIDDLE
DESTROY ALL ART 45 AND ART COVER
Paul Boering:
There was a famous gangland slaying in 1929 known as the "St.
Valentine's Day Massacre". There is a photograph of the murder
scene which is what we set out to recreate on the back of the
"Destroy All Art" single. Also, since we were calling to
"Destroy All Art", and we didn't believe THE STIFFS were exempt
from that manifesto, the photo on the back depicts our
murder/suicide.
Whitey Sterling:
Violence always held something for me. Crime offered some sort
of logic to the chaos that was violence, or perhaps just style.
Crime of days past, that is, as it was easy to romanticize.
Modern day crime left us cold.
RX Mauser:
The fascination with "stylish crime" is simply that it was in
fact stylish. Crime these days may hold some fascination in what
people will do or try to do, but it tends to be outright ugly
and/or boring.
Bryn Mars:
The interest (with crime) was due to a combination of many
things - a yearning for the New York of the past, the amazing
imagery/photographs of the era, the nicknames, the stories, and
above all, the clothes...a fine fedora rakishly askew after a
bullet to the head was pure perfection.
Listen to
the song
“Destroy All Art”
FROM THE
STIFFS TO STIFFS, INC.
Paul Boering:
That band – THE STIFFS from England during the late 1970's
--- was not very well-known, and we didn't think our band would
ever get to a point where we would have high enough visibility
that it would be an issue. American did not want to have any
legal issues with any of the previous bands who had called
themselves "THE STIFFS", so they suggested we change the name.
We chose STIFFS, INC. due to its similarities to "Murder, Inc.",
which was a crime organization from the 1930's.
Whitey
Sterling: I was happy for the change, as STIFFS, INC. seemed
to express more of what we were about. I tend to think of the
suffix as tapping into both our secretarial and murderous
interests. Dystopian as well.
Listen to an
early version of
“Blown Away Baby”
SIGNING
TO A MAJOR
Paul Boering:
Johan Kugelberg was the gentleman who signed us to
Onion/American. Rick Rubin hired Johan Kugelberg to start his
own imprint (Onion Records) which would be underneath the
umbrella of American Recordings. I believe the concept was that
Johan (who used to work at Matador Records) would sign
underground-type bands, for very little money, and then these
bands would hopefully provide some sort of hipness factor to
American. And perhaps American was also secretly hoping that
one or more of these Onion bands would gain unforeseen
popularity .
RICK RUBIN – AMERICAN RECORDS HEAD HONCHO
Paul Boering:
Rick
Rubin had nothing to do with our signing or with the recording
of Nix Nought Nothing. I met him once for 30 seconds in
American's offices; none of the other STIFFS even met him. My
only impression of him was that he had a long beard.
Whitey
Sterling: Rick Rubin kept his distance from us.
RX Mauser:
I neither know what involvement Rick Rubin had with regard to
us, though my impression was not a lot. I don't think we piqued
his interest. I remember someone at American saying that he was
going through some kind of a mid-life crisis at the time and
that music, in general, wasn't thrilling him.
Bryn Mars:
Rick Rubin was totally absent. In fact, I never met him. I
think at the time he was bored with running a label and was
getting more involved in his various producing projects since it
was easier, more fun, and much more lucrative. Around the time
we were signed, his work with the CHILI PEPPERS was leading to
other projects, like producing AC/DC, one of his favorite
bands. So, to him, we held zero interest. I doubt he even
listened to our record.
NIX NOUGHT
NOTHING SONGWRITING PROCESS
Whitey
Sterling:
I had a feeling when songwriting of constantly casting aside.
Once it seemed understood or the workings of the song made
sense, there was a desire to undo it. Not conscious so much, but
just how we were. And constantly paring. Remove anything
unnecessary in a way. Later we started to embrace what we would
have considered unnecessary, and at this point I see the
delineation as meaningless.
RX Mauser:
The songwriting process was always the same throughout our
existence as a band. The process most often began with Whitey
bringing in a more or less compete idea of a song that we would
all put to the anvil to see what might be forged. It was truly a
collaborative process.
LYRICS
Whitey
Sterling:
Certainly the lyrics can be seen as nihilistic, but I prefer to
view them as nothingcentric. I think at our core all of us
understand that ultimately all is devoid of any sort of inherent
nature, and impermanent. We spend much of our life attempting
to come to terms with this in some way. Some of us choose to
find meaning in all sorts of things, and some of us choose to
find meaning in nothing. I think on some level, the lyrics deal
with finding meaning in nothing, but not in the sense of finding
that there is no meaning in anything, but in the sense that even
nothingness has meaning. It could be stated, by this same
token, that meaning has nothingness inherent in it as well.
Understanding this paradox (or, not understanding it, as it is
not something to be understood so much as it simply is a truth
of experience) lies at the heart of much of what is said there.
I don't even think I understood exactly at the time, but that is
in keeping with the fact that it is not something to be
understood but experienced. This digresses from the question a
bit, but suffice to say that I knew that nothing held something
for me, and I would be damned if I was not going to find it.
The irony is that it was by finally not finding it that all fell
into place on some level. There is nothing there, and by that I
mean that it all adds up to an emptiness, but this emptiness
holds all of it at once. It is the unity that holds nihilism
and faith in the same space.
Listen to
the song
“Panic in the Springtime”
THE
RECORDING OF NIX NOUGHT NOTHING
Paul Boering:
By
necessity, the recording of the album was quick, clean and
efficient. The album had a low budget --- ($6,000 I believe)
--- so we could only allot 4 days for recording and 3 days for
mixing. We recorded all of the songs live. Bryn, Mauser and I
were in one room together, and Whitey was in a vocal isolation
booth. We did two or three takes of each song, and as soon as
we had one take which we felt was decent, we moved on to the
next song. Whitey then went back and re-sang his vocals, and we
overdubbed some things such as background vocals, second guitar
parts, little keyboard noodles, etc. Antony (now of ANTONY & THE
JOHSONS) produced the album with us. It was he who came up with
the idea to assemble a large group chorus to sing the "quite
sane" part at the end of "Mary Pickford". We called everyone we
knew, and were able to assemble quite an impressive
congregation: members of THE AMAZING CHERUBS, FUR, several
members of the BLACKLIPS PERFORMANCE CULT, Peter Zaremba of THE
FLESHTONES (who was working in the studio where we were
recording), and Jacqueline Breyer (who is now a part of PSYCHIC
TV). Melora (of RASPUTINA) came in to play cello on "Mary
Pickford".
Whitey
Sterling:
I loved recording Nix Nought Nothing. No one mucked
with us, and we had wonderful creative control. We recorded it
at the soon to be gone Coyote Studios. Dave Sardy was a secret
producer, and an unexpected pleasure was to have Peter Zaremba
(THE FLESHTONES) on hand to help out.
RX Mauser:
A lot of credit for the sound of the album should go to the
uncredited (by choice) engineer, Dave Sardy. While he certainly
didn't understand us personally, he at least seemed to have some
understanding of our music. He was originally supposed to only
supervise the recording, but when we were unable to get the
mixing of the record going, he was called back in to save the
day. It was pretty amazing. We were trying everything, but
everything sounded like it was coated with mud. When Sardy came
back, he simply turned a few knobs and it all sounded like we
had envisioned.
Bryn Mars:
From my standpoint, I felt a little "cheated". I played all my
tracks "live", with all of the songs played back-to-back, and
was only given about 8 hrs to get them "down". So, for me, it
was not the romantic vision of recording on a major label's
dime...i.e. could take your time, could enjoy a fine wine while
eating some fancy food, and could hang out with some
supermodels. For me, I was in, out, and done in one day. But,
maybe that was what gives the album its sonic sense of
urgency...1, 2, 3, you get one shot at this, GO!
Listen to an
early version of
“Work Work Work…”
THE
COVER
Paul Boering:
The object on the cover of the album is some sort of antique
ophthalmologist's device. Around the time we were trying to
figure out what the album cover was going to be, I was strolling
through the
streets of SoHo, when I happened upon the storefront window of
Mister E. Buk. The window was filled with 7 or 8 amazing
antique objects which I thought might play some part in our
artwork. His space was filled with the most amazing antique
objects I had ever seen, and many of them were of a scientific
or medical nature which was right up THE STIFFS' alley. Later
Whitey went back with Marti (our photographer), and they went
through more of the objects, and Whitey became enamored with
this ophthalmologist's device. Marti took Polaroids of the
object and Whitey developed this elaborate concept for the album
cover with the ophthalmologist's device appearing on a black &
white checkerboard tile floor, with a pool of blood in the
background. We constructed a diorama on a table in my
apartment, containing all the aforementioned details. When we
saw the contact sheet of all the photographs, we saw the
close-up and said "That's it!"
“CHELSEA”
AS A SINGLE
Paul Boering:
We made a video for "Chelsea", but it was never played on MTV.
Supposedly, the video was played on some Canadian music video
channel. And I don't think we were played on college radio. We
were covered in CMJ and they put "Chelsea" on the compilation CD
which came with the magazine. American Recordings got us a piece
in SPIN Magazine, which was helpful. Many people have told us
they bought Nix Nought Nothing after seeing us in SPIN.
Whitey Sterling: I think by the time we were doing the
album, we were not so enamored with "Chelsea" any more. But it
seemed like there was little debate that it would be the
single. Public reaction to it? There was a public reaction?
American tried to promote us, but we did our best to thwart
their efforts.
RX Mauser:
“Chelsea” got a generally pretty good reaction, but not a very
widespread one. Promotion seemed to have been a genuine issue
with the band. I think a big part of the problem is that they
just didn't know what to do with us. I mean, promoting SIR
MIX-A-LOT or The BLACK CROWES is a no-brainer, but STIFFS,
INC.? We have to bear our part of the blame in this regard as
well. The classic example of this was when we somehow got
offered a spot in Rolling Stone's swimsuit issue. It was obvious
that the label really wanted us to do this, but it was just too
contrary to the aesthetics and principles of the band and we had
to say no.
Bryn Mars: “Chelsea”
went no where. We probably should have toured abroad in
retrospect. Early royalty checks showed that we were being
played in Canada, Italy, and some other foreign lands. They
seemed to "get it", but the folks in the US sure didn't.
Listen to an
early version of
“Chelsea”
TOURING
Paul Boering:
We went on a six-week tour of the U.S. with JONATHAN FIRE*EATER.
The tour had some great shows, such as in Sioux City, Iowa and
Portland, Oregon. Iowa City was a lowlight --- the total number
of audience members was literally zero. The only people in the
club were THE STIFFS, the members of JONATHAN FIRE*EATER, and
the club's bartender/soundman. Another lowlight/highlight was
in Las Vegas, where we found out the club was a place called
BOOMERS, which was an imitation HOOTERS joint. The two bands
decided little could be gained by playing this venue and we went
off and played miniature golf instead.
RX Mauser: The tour could easily have been a disaster
with our booking agent going AWOL early on so that some of the
shows either weren't promoted, and hence not well-attended, or
we would drive hours to a show only to find that we had not been
booked at all. Still, I think we can all say that the tour was
one of the best experience of our lives and the fact that we
were touring with JONATHAN FIRE*EATER is one of the reasons why.
They were great guys and we liked their music. We also had a
good time gambling away the little funds we had accrued
throughout the tour in some divey old casino. We had tried one
of the fancier casinos, but were kicked out with the explanation
that "People like you (i.e. Whitey) are the type that try to rob
the joint."
Listen to a
different version of
“Engineering”.
Recorded as a promotional single before embarking on the tour
alongside JONATHAN FIRE*EATER, this is the version the band always intended
to release.
Go to ACT III:
THE
END |
