Interview Holy Shit

Holy Shit! are a hardcore punk band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. One part thrash, one part Jolt Cola (or maybe Tab), several parts Whiskey, shaken and stirred will lead to one hell of a Holy Shit! hangover.
Holy Shit are from Wisconsin. We have them in our studio here, our basement studio so let’s just do the round. Let’s start with Andy. Say “Hi” into the mic and tell us what you play in the band.
Andy (A): Hi. My name is Andy Junk. I play guitar, I do backing vocals and trumpet.
Eric (E): I’m Eric Apnea and I play drums.
Tabman (Tab): I’m Tabman and I sing.
Tony (T): I’m Tony Schwader and I play the bass guitar.
Do you guys play in any other bands outside of HOLY SHIT ?
A: Lots of them.

And what would they be ?
Tab: Lets start with Tony this time.
T: My name is Tony Schwader (bursts out into laughter). I’m in a band called FULL HOUSE with my father and my uncle. We play songs like “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Freebird” for people up in Gillet Wisconsin. It’s like hicks and rednecks. It is a total cover band.
A: Name a song, they probably play it.
So you do “Don’t Fear the Reaper”.
T: No. I am sorry to disappoint you.
A: It’s with his dad and stuff.
T: Yeah, it’s good shit. Oh, I’m in the ORANGE CUBES, too.
Tab: I’m in the FUN TIME GUYS with Andy, TOTAL BORING with Eric, and SLUDGIE McSTONER PANTS AND THE BONG RIDERS and Eric’s in that too. There is more and I am having trouble trying to think.
Do you need some whiskey...
E: COIN SHIP.
Tab: I’m not going to mention COIN SHIP.
E: You just did.
Tab: I’m not in COIN SHIP. I quit.

Hot Dog! The Hot Dog is here.
Simon: No Worcestershire sauce. I got the hickory Bar-B-Que sauce instead. And they don’t have purple ketchup which is a drag.
T: We love hot dogs.
Ladies and gentlemen, do not go to the street vendor at Harbord and St. George. There is no purple ketchup.
E: And there is no cheese. What is the deal with no cheese ?
T: I know, eh.
Tab: Yeah, I just started a new band with the guys from TAB and a member with BLACK WALL HITCH. It doesn’t really have a name. That is all I can think of right now.

That is good enough.
E: Okay. Let’s see. I’m in the CATHOLIC BOYS, HOLY SHIT, SLUDGIE McSTONER PANTS AND THE BONGRIDERS, TOTAL BORING, we’re all in the BLUE BALLS sometimes. ORANGE CUBES was mentioned. There’s more. I’M LOVED. We’re both in I’M LOVED. Tabman is in that too. Is there more ?
T: I’m in HOLY SHIT. I’m in the FUN TIME GUYS with Tabman over here mentioned previously. I’m in this band called the OPEN SORES, but we’re changing our name so for what it’s worth. That’s a pop band. And really that is currently the only bands. Three. I was in the FRAGMENTS. Eric and I were both in the FRAGMENTS.
So how did HOLY SHIT come together ? How did you guys form ? I’m assuming its because you guys are in a million other bands together.
E: It was back in Green Bay still.
T: I remember bothering Andy about starting a hardcore band. Tim was actually supposed to be in it at one point and I don’t know … I had bothered him and he said “Yeah” and Eric said “Yeah”…
E: Actually a funny story is that TOTAL BORING had a show with TAB two weeks before we started practicing so we both each wrote three songs. We did covers. We wrote songs that actually got used like “Drink Tab, Dropout”, “We’re Poor, Fuck You”, “Church vs. Alcohol”, those are all TOTAL BORING songs.
Tab: And a SIFFLIN HOLLY cover.
E: Yeah, that’s important. That was pre-HOLY SHIT.

How did HOLY SHIT happen from there? Accidentally?
T: Internet.
A: We have nothing to do with the internet.
T: Dude I am the internet.
E: You’re the internet? Well Paul is TV so you can be the internet.
A: Can I have liquor ? Do we have any big story behind HOLY SHIT ? Nope.
E: I can’t think of any.
A: No mysteries.
No stories ? Then where did you get the name ?
A: I had this working list of band names going, like a mile long. I actually have it here if you want to hear a bunch more. I thought of the name HOLY SHIT. I was like “Godamn it, I need to start a band named HOLY SHIT”, and every song is based around our name.

Who writes the lyrics ?
A: We all do, but Tabman does mainly I’d say.
And what are most of the songs about ?
Tab: My songs are emo. They all degrade myself.
E: Crybaby.
Tab: Rejection of life
E: Mostly about poseurs. That’s what it’s about. We hate them.
A: Poseurs are sissies.
Are there a lot of poseurs in Milwaukee ?
E: No not really. There is some.
T: There is this one guy. I won’t get into it.
Tab: He’s got a blue mohawk.
E: I have a mohawk right now.
Tab: That’s our agenda.
Awww let’s see, I am just skipping the questions….
A: Oh no, don’t skip questions. We’re ready for them
I don’t think you are. Tell us about the split cassette with TAB and how that came about?
A: Tabman I think you should take this one.
Tab: The split with TAB ? I don’t really know why that happened.
A: You probably know more about how the band TAB came about in general.
E: You are there manager.
Tab: I didn’t really have anything to do with it. I was Tabman, I talked to Nick of TAB on-line a few times and he thought I was Tabman because I collected guitar tabs or something like that …. (loads of laughter)…. He thought I was some guy who had the tabs to every song ever written.
T: Tabman has never actually played a guitar tab in his life.
Tab: I still had never met this guy and I was talking to him and he never asked me about it.

And what guitar tabs was he searching for ?
Tab: Apparently I must have brought up soda one night and he freaked out and said that he had been drinking Tab all of his life. Which I guess I believe.
E: Does he have cancer ? (they start making ralphing noises).
A: So this tape came about because we were both hardcore bands within a certain scene in Wisconsin that didn’t have a lot of hardcore bands….
E: …and all the other hardcore bands were total shit.
A: Well, yeah.
E: They are terrible. It’s like scream-o. It’s garbage.
A: It’s totally different. SELDON CRISIS had broken up at that point and so it was like us and TAB and so we figured “Godamn, we should just pull together a recording.”
And it was put out on a local tape label ?
A: Yeah, called Blank Tapes. It was started in Green Bay when we lived at the Blank House and there is a lot of releases on it at this point.
E: There is about 14 and it is all local except for one band and that’s the POTENTIAL JOHNS and that is one of the guy’s from THE REDS solo shit.
Tab: We have a lot of them with us so if you want to drive to Montreal….

This might not air for another month.
E: You can order it from….
T: The show in Toronto was fun. I got drunk. We could not find any weed.
E: We didn’t really look either.
T: We don’t do that.
E: No, Never.
Are there any other releases since the split cassette ?
Tab: We have a 7”, do you want one ?
E: We put it out ourselves.
T: It came out the day we left for tour.
Tab: Check it out. It’s yellow.
E: It’s called “What the Fuck ?”
T: Holy Shit! What the Fuck!
Tab: It’s got inserts. Not too much swearing.
T: We can’t do that.
Tab: No we can, but
E: We can swear the shit out of it….
Tab: … but not like fuckity fuck.
So this is brand new. What label is it on ?
Tab: It’s not on a label. It’s on HOLY SHIT.
There you go. How can people get a hold of
it ?
E: Use your address.
A: You can order it for $3.00 or $4.00 Canadian
T: Two toonies.
What about post paid ?
A: That’s fine. Well actually it’s $4.00 American post paid, but since we love Canadians so godamn much we will allow it to be $4.00 Canadian post paid.
(Simon starts saying something about how American dollars are easy to come, but we can’t really make out what he is saying because he has hot dog stuffed in his mouth)
A: Simon Harvey gave us a little tip here that you should send us U.S. cash please. $4.00 to 2658 North Booth Street / Milwaukee, WI / 53212 / USA.
And do you have an e-mail address ?
T: Yes it’ holysheeyit@yahoo.com
Tab: A question I have been meaning to ask for some time now is why all the extra letters.
T: Tabman ?
Tab: What ?
T: Do you realize how hard it is to get Holy Shit for a fuckin’ e-mail address ?
E: Won’t they let you have a swear word ?
T: Of course they will let you have a swear word, it is just taken by porn people, I mean not that we are not porn people, but you just can’t get a….that’s why our website is holyshitexclamationpoint.com
Tab: That’s all spelled out.
T: Yeah. Exclamation point is two words but no spaces.
A: That’s right all one word.
E: Holy Shit is also two words no spaces.
T: Together it is four words. You know what, you can’t do an exclamation point on a URL thing-y.
(busts out to an incomprehensible back and forth about exclamation points)
T: Why ? because. Why ? because. The CATHOLIC BOYS have a website too and it is really great. You should look for it. (this degenrates into some kind of laughing fits about swastikas)
Is there anything else you guys want to say after all this wonderful informative information?
E: Ah no.
A: Informative information. Information of the informative variety in Canada. I love Canada.
T: I really do. Hot Dogs for two Canadian dollars.
E: It’s one coin. Stick to your script, godman it.
A: The Jamieson’s cheaper.
E: Yeah by about a dollar.
T: We are drinking really shitty Canadian whiskey and it is really good in the U.S.
A: we actually dumped a quarter of a pint of Corbey’s Canadian right before we crossed the border.
E: But then they just asked us if we were all in the same family and the driver said “yes” and they didn’t even I.D. us.
A: Ha ha, we’re not a family. “Here’s the story of a band named Holy Shit” (to the Brady Bunch theme).
I think we are done. Thanks everybody. We posted up a photo album's worth opf pictrues on our myspace site.