The Vandals stick to ‘real’ punk music for 20 years
By KELLY WILSON
Get Out

When Dave Quackenbush, lead singer for longstanding punk band The Vandals, confesses that he likes depressing music, it's a little surprising.
After all, his band is known for their laugh-out-loud lyrics and song titles such as “I've Got an Ape Drape” and “My Girlfriend's Dead,’’ so one doesn't expect the frontman to be wallowing in sadness.

“I've been going through some hard times lately, so I like depressing music,’’ Quackenbush, who recently broke up with his girlfriend, says.
But does the music help him get through the hard times?

“No, it just makes them worse and I kind of revel in that,’’ he says, laughing.

You won't find anything too heartbreaking on the SoCal group's latest album, “Hollywood Potato Chip,” according to Quackenbush.

“It's more uptempo,’’ he says of the disc. “There's faster songs on there and a lot of screaming. I realized that the songs on this album, when we try to play them, it hurts my throat.’’ The Vandals — which also includes bassist Joe Escalante (who owns the band's label Kung Fu Records), guitarist Warren Fitzgerald and drummer Josh Freese — haven't abandoned their sound to take up scream-o.

“There's not a lot of ‘mo’ in it,’’ he says. “There's a lot of scream.’’
Quackenbush says he's seen a lot of changes in punk music since The Vandals broke onto the scene 20 years ago.

“What people consider punk music now has changed quite a bit,’’ he says. “It's just pop music. It's just Good Charlotte — or as I like to call them Good Toilet — as opposed to bands like Green Day and Nirvana that made people excited about music ... Now with bands like Yellowcard or Good Charlotte, I think people have gotten super lazy. OK, this is pop music and it has gone to this realm. It has gone to the 12-year-olds, away from the college kids and people have lost all interest and faith in it.

“Punk, to begin with, is just something you should laugh at. If you don't laugh at it then you're just way too serious about things.’’

The Vandals — an Arizona favorite — will bring their brand of punk to the East Valley this week.

“The only real memory I have in Arizona is going back there in the early ’80s,’’ Quackenbush says. “We used to stay at this wacky hotel that had a little beach scene that was right on Van Buren — the crappiest street on the planet — and next to a prison with prostitutes everywhere. So we stayed at this hotel and it was like a tropical oasis but then you'd look up at the ceiling and there would be prostitutes and people doing heroin. That was really cool!’’

The Vandals, Melee, Underminded
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe
How much: $13
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