Murder City Devils: Cradle To The Grave…And Back
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Astonished fans everywhere flocked to Seattle in July of 2006 for the Block Party Festival, as word spread faster than a field on fire that the rumors were true - Murder City Devils were back. Sort of. One headlining festival show, one not-so-secret club gig, and then the Devils were gone once more. Seemingly forever. Tossing the bones and aligning the stars yet again, the haunted punk band rose from the dead for the second time the first weekend of November 2007 for Austin, Texas' Fun Fun Fun Fest. Saturday night's requisite tiny, unannounced club show was a drunken, brutal testament to the Devils' greatness - fans hung from the balcony by their legs, drunken revelers vomited onto the glass-littered floor, and smuggled bottles of Maker's Mark were offered up to the band like communion. The resulting Fun Fest headlining slot on Sunday was a subdued yet powerfully smoldering affair; "Bride of the Elephant Man", "Midnight Service at the Mutter Museum" and "Dear Hearts" highlighted a set of scarcely restrained fury. So what does the future hold? In the words of the band themselves - "The Murder City Devils are dead, long live the Devils". With a new batch of west coast dates confirmed for February 2009, the Devils' resurrection seems to know no bounds. Altercation editor Justin Habersaat spoke to vocalist Spencer Moody from his new curio store The Anne Bonny in Seattle. Photos by Donna Habersaat.
Altercation: So what inspired you to open your own store?
Spencer: I just had a crappy job in a warehouse and decided I didn't want to work for someone else anymore. I've always had a vague idea of the type of store I would like to have, so I figured there was no reason not to just try it.
A: Has it been well received so far?
S: It has been well received, but if you mean "are you making any money" then the answer is no. (Laughs) But I'm confident it will all work out.
A: The Anne Bonny as a store name definitely continues your muse of the ocean as inspiration, which is a theme that obviously ran through the lyrical content of both Murder City Devils material as well as Dead Low Tide…
S: Yes, for sure.
A: Did you grow up near the water?
S: I did. Not really the sea, but the water. (Laughs) There were big ships docked near where I grew up. But I think it has always been more about the idea of travel, and being away from home, that has attracted me as much as anything.
A: Coming from a band that toured as much as the Devils, was it hard adjusting to a non-nomadic lifestyle after the split?
S: Not really. Sometimes I feel kind of bad about things, since for a long time I was committed to a life of music making as my priority. I mean I'll always make music and I'll always be in bands. But any time I start feeling a sense of loss or regret I'll just think about long tours, and I'll find myself saying "thank god I don't have to do that anymore". (Laughs) No one wants to spend a lot of money on your record and promote it well if you plan to sit behind a desk at a thrift shop once it comes out. I feel like I have lots of time, so if I have some sort of crisis down the road where I feel like I need to be on tour it will still be an option.
A: One of the last Murder City Devils shows I caught before your farewell tour was in New Jersey, and as a band you seemed pretty defeated offstage. Since the split, it seems like your fanbase has only gotten bigger, which seems to be a strange dynamic. Is that surprising to you?
S: I wanted it to be that way, and I was definitely excited about the slow build of popularity over time. At the same time, I'm fairly distant from it. I mean, I know we still sell records. I don't know.
A: Were you surprised to see people purchasing plane tickets to make the reunion shows and things like that?
S: Um...not so much. (Laughs) I don't know what that's supposed to mean to me honestly. It's certainly flattering.
A: All of the individual members have so many different projects going at once that it seems amazing that you can all get in the same place. How did the concept of doing the rare reunion show come about?
S: Gabe has been keeping his eyes peeled for the right moments. We've had a few opportunities and the timing just really needs to be absolutely perfect.
A: Are there any plans to release any further studio material? I think "Waltz" and "Grace That Saves", which were both pretty much untitled at the time of your last live album RIP, are amazing songs.
S: I would never say that that's impossible. It would be cool to hear studio versions of those songs. What I say would be more likely is that some of the members might make another rock record down the road, although it wouldn't be a Murder City Devils record. It's not out of the question that we would record again, but I would be surprised, and I definitely couldn't place a guess as to any sort of timeline.
A: You new project Triumph of Lethargy seems very "anything goes" in approach. Was that a reaction to the business end of things MCD encountered towards the end in terms of label issues, etc.?
S: No, but with Lethargy it's the first time I've had more of a role in the crafting of the music aside from just writing the lyrics. So I feel like a full collaborator in something, that I'm more important to the process. So that makes it more of a personal expression, and we definitely have a policy that people can do whatever they want in the band, which wasn't always the case in the Murder City Devils. There were weird rules. There were a lot of us, and everyone had their own ideas or whatever. I mean, we broke up for a reason. (Laughs)
