Hangin' Around at the Junkyard....
When I was nine years old and just beginning to immerse myself in the world of hard rock and metal, one of the videos I often saw on MTV was “Hollywood,” by a band called Junkyard. I liked the song well enough, but never got around to getting the album until over a dozen years later. At such a young age, I wouldn’t really have been able to hear the difference in Junkyard’s stripped-down, beer-battered sound and that of the plethora of straight glam bands I was into at the time, but when I got both of their official releases, that difference was one of the things that endeared them to me the most. For that reason, Junkyard’s music has stood the test of time, where other bands of the era might not have aged so well.
And so, when I thought about bands to interview for the Revenge, I thought of Junkyard. (All right, actually, D-Day suggested it one day when I was raving about them, but I’m sure I would’ve thought of it eventually.) Surprisingly, it wasn’t hard tracking down drummer Pat Muzingo, and he was nice enough to answer all my questions in detail. Whether or not you’re a fan of the band, or even ever heard of them, this should make a pretty entertaining read.
Fizz: A lot of former punks made the transition to more mainstream hard rock in the late ’80’s, including three members of Junkyard: you, Brian Baker and Chris Gates. How did you guys come to shed the punk stylings and form Junkyard? Were you bored with punk, saw more opportunities elsewhere, or what?
Pat: To tell ya the truth I don’t think we ever dumped the punk ethic. Hell the first track on the debut (Life Sentence) is about as punk as you can get. Its not that we were bored with Punk, we just ended up in the right place at the right time…or wrong time depending on who you ask. The bands we that we were in (Chris with The Big Boys and Poison 13, Brian with Minor Threat and Dag Nasty and Todd Muscat and I with Decry) were actually successful within the punk/hardcore scene. It was just that were getting better at being musicians. Back then you really didn’t need to know how to play that well to be a real cool punk band. That was the great thing about it. It was all so new, no rules! Just get 4 or 5 guys together, learn a few chords in a garage and write your own music. I chuckle to myself sometimes when people tell me they started off playing in cover bands having to do 2 sets a night. That’s just something that I can’t comprehend? They probably moved out to L.A. TO “Be a Rock Star” & ended up at MIT!…sorry about that. I am an L.A. native.
As far as opportunities elsewhere I guess you can look at it this way. No matter what band member you ask that came from the Punk scene circa 1979 - 1984 chances are they grew up skateboarding, getting stoned, surfing or just hanging out listening to Aerosmith, Lynrd Skynrd, Led Zeppelin or Van Halen. When punk came around it was like “Fuck this shit, lets go break some shit and piss everyone off”. But even that got old. The guitar you used to play like crap all of a sudden made music, you realized there was more than two parts to a song and ZZ Top and Van Halen were just as cool, and Black Flag and The Circle Jerks.
I think we were all on the same wavelength when the Junkyard lineup was complete. We all grew up in the same era. Half the time we didn’t even have to speak to each other cause we knew what the other one was thinking. The image that we portrayed was actually us. No stupid get ups or props. No gay ass spandex or choreographed moves. Those bands were so funny. They would have their wardrobe chick with ‘em always teasing up their big ass hair. I remember a few times showing up to sound-check at clubs and the owner was like “Go ahead and set up your gear over there. When is the band gonna get here”. We were like, Uh dude, we are the band! We all took it in stride. We never got mad about cause we knew as soon as we got on stage people were gonna shit right through their pink spandex!
Fizz: On the debut album, you give thanks to some kind of truck-rally. Since we here at D-Day’s Revenge are very big on all things loud and gas-guzzly, what role id that play in forming the band?
Pat: Truck rally? Oh yeah, Baker’s buddies from Virginia. I don’t think he was serious about that? It was more a “Shout Out” to all his people’s back east.
When Chris first moved out here from Austin he had a precise vision of what he wanted. I remember a few years before I was in Junkyard I ran into Chris at a thrift store in Pasadena. He was telling me all about this idea he had. It was to rip L.A. a Texas size asshole. Basically do it the punk way. Go out and play with all these goofy rocker bands and show ‘em what it’s all about, Southern Style. So many bands back then had no idea who ZZ Top was, let alone Lynrd Sknyrd or Molly Hatchet. All they knew about was that damn “Freedom Rock” compilation on T.V.
Bands back then had reference points like the Bay City Rollers? Real fluffy pop. I told him to keep me in mind if he ever needed a drummer.
At that time I was in a band with some ex-Punks” called “Pirates of Venus”. It was kinda like Junkyard but done the wrong way. We were a brilliant drunken mess. Always drama going on with that band. We lived in San Francisco and L.A. We just could not make up our minds where to live. I got real fed up with it and quit. The day I got back to L.A. I got a message from Chris. Junkyard had been playing around for about 7 months already. He said, Dude, we need ya. The next day I was in the band.
Fizz: Despite your stripped-down hard rock sound, and later, a video in rotation on MTV, you guys seemed to travel in punk circles still, rather than with the usual crop of Sunset Strip suspects. Was this by a conscious effort on the part of the band, or did it just happen that way naturally? Did you catch a lot of flak from the punks around you?
Pat: I don’t think we hated the Sunset Strip. It was just that it wasn’t our bag. After years of playing in shitty dive bars all across the USA you end up where you feel more comfortable. We went up there a few times and just felt real outta place. I mean these guys were walking around with full-blown makeup, hair puffed up as high as the sky, stuffing cucumbers down their jeans and we were walking around brown baggin it with flasks in tow. It was so funny back then. Comedy rock!
When we were getting attention
(MTV, Radio, Magazines) we still hung
out at the same dives with the same
old people. A few times we got to go to
fancy dinners and what not but at the
end of the night we all ended up back
at Raji’s or Boardners or some dive
bar/ Pool hall. All our friends were still
in Punk bands. They were getting
successful at the same time we were.
We were all happy for each other. Just
cause we didn’t play Punk shows
anymore didn’t mean that we wrote off
our past or our friends.
Fizz: You often played the off-Sunset club Raji’s. Give us a good story from this fabled club.
Pat: Boy I loved Rajis! East Hollywood! It was the best. They paid you and gave you booze. You didn’t have to pay to play like up on the strip. That’s one thing I never understood. Pay someone so you can drag all your gear up to there club and have then make money off you? Fucking scam! I guess coming from the punk scene it just made no scene. Throw a party, rent a veteran’s hall, do anything! Don’t ever pay a club owner to play at his club. You wouldn’t pay your boss when you come into work? Anyhow, back to Raji’s. One personal story I have from there was about a year prior to Junkyard. Being a drummer meant I had a truck. Having a truck in Hollywood meant hauling gear. I had known Guns and Roses from when they first started out. They played their 4th or 5th show opening up for Decry at Madame Wongs in Chinatown. They called me up and asked me if I would drive gear down to Rajis. I was like sure, for 50 bucks! Of course they agreed and off we went. I had to stay for the whole show to take the gear back to their rehearsal space. While hangin out waiting for them to pack up these 2 “older guys” started talking with the band. I was getting pissed cause it was like 3 a.m. and there was to be no after party. Finally Duff turned around and introduced me to the 2 older gentlemen. It was Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. I was so bummed! The reason why is that while waiting around for them to load out these two KISS guys were talking so much shit about the L.A. scene and how Raji’s was the biggest dump. I was like, these are 2 guys that I loved when I was growing up but all they are is two tools trying to cash in on the next big thing. I lost all respect for KISS after that night.
Fizz: Tom Werman produced your debut. It has been said that Werman produced every album to sound like it was 1979, particularly his drum sound. Recently, Twisted Sister has publicly bashed Werman’s production of Stay Hungry. Did you guys fight with him during the production of the debut at all?
Pat: When Tom did the record that was the first time any of us had worked with a “Big Time” producer. I was nervous cause we were tracking drums first. Tom went out of his way to make me feel as comfortable as humanly possible. There were no fights at all. I liked Tom and the people he brought onboard to engineer. Tom got it. He understood where we were coming from. I don’t know why Twisted Sister would complain about Tom. He had a way to record the drums. Listening back to it now I suppose they were a little tinny but that was the sound back then. I think the only fights we had while recording that record was who was gonna go out and get the beer? None of us wanted to leave the recording studio. They had nice couches, air conditioning and cable TV!
Fizz: The self-titled album features guest spots from the likes of Molly Hatchet’s Duane Roland, Earl Slick and the legendary Al Kooper. How did those come about?
Pat: That was all Tom’s doing. When he said he was gonna
bring in these other players we were like, Hell yeah! I was
at Studio 56 when Earl Slick was doing his slide guitar
parts. I could not believe my ears! I was a big fan of
Phantom, Rocker and Slick.
Fizz: Rip magazine featured you in 1989 or so, in some kind of "Bands to Watch in
the '90's" issue,along with the likes of Bang Tango, Slaughter, and I forget who-all else. About the only bands who actually went on to greater success were the BLack Crowes and Soundgarden. Did they jinx you? (Just a dumb, non-serious question.)
Pat: No, I don’t think they jinxed us. Sounds like they might have jinxed Slaughter, Bang Tango and the others! Its funny, there was a real cool scene happening when Junkyard started out. I remember doing a show with Janes Addiction headlining, Us playing middle and Soundgarden opening up. Any chance we would get we would jump on bills like that rather that playing with some poofy hair glam band. All our friends (The Hangmen, Sea Hags, Broken Glass, Celebrity Skin, The Little Kings, Kill for Thrills and many more) got signed one way or another and moved further and further away from the monstrosity that is know as "The Strip". We didn't want to be involved in that scene. Unfortunately labels like to categorize things and there we were, sharing the pages at the checkout stand with bands we had nothing in common with. Oh well! At least we can look back and not be embarrassed by the pictures. I was showing my 10 year old daughter Amorette some old magazines. They all said we were the "Next big thing". The only thing she said was, "There was allot of girl bands back then?". When I told her those were all guys she almost fell out of her chair laughing. Sorry about that, got off the question!
Fizz: We’re all suckers for band-on-the-road stories. Got any good’uns?
Pat: I am sure all your readers have heard them all. Typical stories of trashing Hotel rooms, fighting within band members, talking over strip bars, etc. We never did much of that. When we were out on the road we would check in to our rooms and within 10 minutes all be at the Hotel bar looking for the local dive bar. Coming from the background we all came from we could not believe that we were traveling in a bus and staying in Hotel Rooms. That was never even a dream when you are a traveling Punk band. You were in heaven if you got 1 hotel room and gas money. That’s one thing that used to piss me off. You have these bands that were popular in the late 80’s and they were trashing hotel rooms, pissing all over their buses, basically showing no respect. They were fucking lucky they were even there. I would love to see a band like Warrant, or Ratt shove all of their equipment + 7 guys in a 1961 Ford Falcon van with an exhaust leak and travel around the states booking shows on the fly.
I am not painting out to be Saints. Don’t get me wrong, we have our share of stories like any other band. We just never shit were we ate.
Fizz: Given that Junkyard didn’t exactly play the “trendy” music of the day, were there any tours you got on where you looked around at the other band(s) and thought “How the hell did we get mixed up in this?” If so, who was it?
Pat: The only tours we did with other bands were with Dangerous Toys, The Black Crowes (their first tour), Extreme, Lynrd Skynrd and The Almighty in England. It seemed like when we were thrown into the mix to open up for the heavyweights they always passed on us. I would like to think cause we were way too good. I don’t wanna brag but we were an amazing live band. No stupid choreographed moves or laser lights. Just us in black t-shirts and jeans sweating our asses off jumping around like we were lunatics in a padded room. Never the same show twice. Never a dull moment. Since we came from punk backgrounds we knew how to annihilate every square inch of a stage. So many bands back then were cookie cutter. Same dance teacher, same wardrobe person, and the same bad light shows with way too much smoke. Just plane boring!! The only smoke machine we had were the five guys on stage! It was no frills entertainment. Half the time people would just look at us like deer in headlights. They had no idea what the hell was going on but man did they love it.
Fizz: How did the writing/recording of Sixes, Sevens and Nines go, as compared to the debut? Was it easier, or did you find there was more pressure on the band?
Pat: There was pressure in the beginning. After the last tour we did for the debut the label told us to go in and write another record. We thought it would be easy but it was real hard at first. It’s the same old story. We were no different than any other band that had a semi successful debut. I remember a few songwriters coming in to write with David and Chris. It was just a big waste of money. Then Steve Earle’s name popped up. We had known Steve through our first A&R contact Teresa Ensenat at Geffen. She was leaving Geffen to handle Steve’s label (she was also his wife at the time). Steve was way cool and he and Chris got along great together. I remember going out to dinner with Steve, Teresa and Chris one night. I was like who is this guy? On the way home Chris told me who he was and I was so blown away! I had no idea that it was Steve Earle! Anyhow Geffen sent David and Chris to go write with Steve. Within 3 days they had penned “Slippin' Away”. After that writing session things came together fairly quick. We had a lockout-recording studio in Hollywood and the ideas were flowing. Chris and Brian were laying down anything that came to mind. Most of what they wrote was the “Six’s” sessions. I think there was maybe one song that did not make it to the record.
Fizz: How was touring for the second album different from the first, particularly in the waning days of more traditional hard rock?
Pat: It was good and bad. We got to go to England for the first time. There was more press. We hosted “Headbangers Ball”. Airplay was happening on MTV and Radio. There seemed to be a lot of buzz about the record. The label thought it might be a good idea to “Clean Up” our image a bit. Instead of black T-Shirts we had new western wear, and new black t-shirts! There was also a new addition to the band with Todd Muscat replacing Clay Anthony. Todd and I have known each other for a million years. We were in Decry together. When we called Todd it was a no brainier. We didn’t have auditions or any of that shit. We pulled from whom we knew. Again it was back to the whole Punk ethic. We also got our first arena tour with Lynrd Skynrd. When the record dropped we sold like 107,000 in one week. This was pre-sound scan so it didn’t register in the charts. While we were out on the road I guess Nirvana and bands like them were starting to finally break. It sucked for us cause we didn’t sell too many records after that tour. We did a few 1-2 week runs after the Skynrd tour but that was about it. The label told us, once again, its time to write another record. This time around we were in the driver seat. Instead of outside songwriters coming in we wrote with our friends. We knew this was the beginning of the end but what can you do? We wrote some of our best material during that time. It was exciting cause these Punk bands were breaking. So many people blame their failures on the “Grunge scene” but they really needed to look in the mirror. The rebirth of Punk rock was great. The only thing we could do is keep writing and go back to our punk roots and try to keep up.
Fizz: Junkyard recorded a double album that never got released when Geffen dropped the band. Most double-albums of new material that I can think of tend to have some kind of concept about them. Was there any conceptual thread running through Joker/XXX?
Pat: The XXX/Joker stuff were all the demos we did for the 3rd release and some of the demos from “6’s, 7’s and 9’s”. The original title of the 3rd release was to be “Shinola” or “107,000 people cant be wrong”. which was a pun at the six’s sales. I think it was 1997 or 98 Chris started selling copies of these demos as a double cd set. Eventually it came to be thought of as an actual release. The reality of it is that its a “Official” bootleg. The concept was, get it to the people otherwise no ones gonna hear it.
Fizz: Some of the songs from XXX/Joker (not sure how to refer to it, were there two separate titles?) sound like they were recorded during the Sixes, Sevens and Nines sessions (i.e. “Out Cold”). Was that the case?
Pat: You got it. I think only about 3 songs were from those sessions. The rest were for the 3rd release. It’s amazing how many songs you can record and think that they are perfect. Then the label comes along and says “I don’t hear a hit”. That’s one of the reasons we covered Fears “I Don’t Care About You, Fuck You”. When the label heard that song they were like, Uh, No way are we gonna put that out! What the hell is going through your mind writing this kind of song! Of course we let them in on the fact that it was a cover. They were like, oh that’s brilliant.
Typical major label response for back then. Those guys were all running for their life to save their jobs back then.
Fizz: Sometime after being dropped by Geffen, the band broke up. Was it a big, messy bust-up, or did you just all decide to go your separate ways?
Pat: Nope. No messy break up. It was kinda funny. We (our lawyer) spent so much time on our contract. I think it was like 250 pages long! When Geffen dropped us it was a one page, two paragraph memo. We were cool about it. We personally never fought each other. I guess from the backgrounds we came from we were used to bands breaking up. Don’t get me wrong, of course we were depressed about it. We were brothers! It was like a family break up. I remember the day we had to go down and pick up all our gear. We wished each other good luck and went on our way.
Fizz: Junkyard has a new EP out, I believe. What exactly is it? New material? Rare older stuff?
Pat: The Tried And True ep was what came from us getting back together in 1999 when we went to Japan. A good friend had some studio time so we went in to record some new tracks to possibly shop to labels. The labels seemed to be disinterested and then Heatslick picked it up in 2003. Some of it is brand new stuff. “Fight” was a new/old song. I think the original title was “Pasadena Kegger”. It was an ode to me and Todd’s younger days living in that area. “Holdin’ On” and “Tried and True” was something we demoed “back in the day” for the 3rd record with Tim Mosher, “Waste of Time” was a brand new one, “Old #9” was something David wrote when he was playing with Jo from Dogs D’Amour and “Simple Man-acoustic” was really an afterthought. 
Photo's of: Tim, Todd, and David in Spain
Fizz Last year, you guys did a reunion gig in Spain. How did they react to you, since one doesn’t generally equate Junkyard’s type of music with something the Europeans would go wild over?
Pat: They went ape shit! I had done the festival one year prior with my old band Speedbuggy. The promoter found out I was in Junkyard and asked if the band would be interested in headlining the next festival. I told him sure, why the hell not. I had totally forgotten about it ‘til he contacted me and put an amazing proposal on the table. Once I contacted the guys in the band it was a no brainier. The Spanish fans are about the best in the world! The are so into the music! We were there for all 3 days of the festival. They could not believe that we wanted to hang out in the crowd rather than backstage. We got an amazing response. David took his bottle of wine (we played in the mecca of wine country) during “Blooze”, jumped down beyond the barriers and started drinking with the crowd…all 10,000 of ‘em!
Fizz: Despite doing sporadic “reunion” gigs, you all have various other things going on. Care to fill us in?
Pat: Right now Chris is taking Texas back and claiming it as his own! His new band, The Charter Bulldogs are ripping a new ass in Texas. They are a great band. If you like Junkyard you will love them. Todd is one of L.A.’s top video editors. He so in demand its ridiculous. David is a proud Papa and living up near Santa Barbara. I believe he one of the top chefs up there right now. Tim is also a hot commodity right now. Everytime you hear a cool riff that sounds like a 1977 punk band on a commercial that would be our very own Tim. As of late he wrote the theme to the “Late Late Show” on CBS. I kinda took a year and a half off do my web/flash design. I was getting so swamped with the work that I didn’t have any time for music. I was playing in a few bands but nothing serious. As of late I am playing with my old band Speedbuggy and might be making a trip over to Europe in April or May and then there is Brian, we all know what that fuckers doing. I saw him last summer on the Warped tour. He is doing great an has never sounded better with Bad Religion.
Fizz: Ever had your foot run over on purpose? (A reference to the song “Hands Off”)
Pat: Yep, I was married once!
Fizz: You all seem pretty happy doing your own things these days. But just suppose for a second that you could be on your fantasy tour. Who would you share the bill with?
Pat: That’s easy: each other! Stick all 6 of us (Brian, Chris, Todd, David, Tim and I) in a van and book some shows around the States and Europe. Sharing a bill with a band? We have enough songs to fill up three sets! Then again a Motorhead/Junkyard tour would be pretty damn cool!
Fizz: Is there any question you wish we would’ve asked? If so, go right ahead and answer it here!
Pat: Not really. You asked some great questions. Who knows what will happen in the future with the band. Back in 1992 when we broke up we never thought we would get back together again. Since we got “back together” we got to go to Japan, Spain, Open up for The Supersuckers at the House of Blues here in Hollywood, release a live record, do a studio record and just plain hang out with each other again. This time around we did it DIY style. No managers, no labels and no booking agent. I suppose we could have went about it the way all the other “Reunion” band have done it but coming from the Punk rock background well grew up in it just seemed natural to do it on our terms.
Thanks again to Pat Muzingo for playing along. The official Junkyard site here
Pat’s other band can be found at speedbuggyusa.com, and his Web-design outfit is at www.amowebdesign.com
Meanwhile, Chris Gates band is at www.charterbulldogs.com, and Brian Baker’s band is at http://www.badreligion.com
All Photo's courtesy of Junkyard
Discuss Junkyard and / or the interview in the boards section!
2/03/05
