A Little Bit Country, And A Little Bit Rock and Roll

Before Modest Mouse was hawking minivan’s, The Polyphonic Spree was selling I-Pod’s, and Phantom Planet were singing the joys of being from California for Fox’s The OC, Southern California’s Limbeck had tasted stardom. Anyone remember the Apple commercial with the monkeys in the garage and there is a band playing. That band was Limbeck.

Well, they’re back and Limbeck’s new record Hi. Everything is Great is a change of pace from their last release, focusing more on country hooks than power pop anthems. Limbeck has traveled the road with the likes of the Rocket Summer and The All American Rejects, but took time off from kicking ass, taking names, and selling Apple computers to talk to Bettawreckonize.

Interview conducted via e-mail by Joe Anderl. Pictures provided by Limbeck

Name: Robb MacLean
Band: Limbeck

BW: How did you guys meet each other and decide that you wanted to play music together?

RM: Our dads played softball together.

BW: How would you describe the sound of Hi, Every things Great?

RM: Fender telecasters. Songs about geography. Rock in the vein of the Replacements and Wilco. Does that work?

BW: Sure. I noticed that there is a pretty big sound change from the last record to Hi, Every things Great. So were you guys trying to find your own sound or was it more like, “We have these bands in common that were interested in and we want to show our influences on our sleeve.” Or was it none of the above, a natural progression.

RM: Yeah, there’s a way big change. It wasn’t really a conscious decision. There were about three years in between the two recordings, so I think that time was the biggest influence in the change we made. We’re all pretty happy where we’re at though.

BW: How was working with Ed Rose?

RM: Wonderful. That was our third time working with him. He’s a lot of fun to spend the better half of the month in the studio with, and he takes pride in his work. He has wolf ears when it comes to instrument tuning, and he knows all the good restaurants in town to bring you to later.

BW: How did you guys hook up with Doghouse Records?

RM: The old fashioned way.. We mailed them a demo. We’re still way happy with our decision to sign with them too. They’ve been extremely good to us.

BW: You guys just completed a tour with the All American Rejects and are currently on tour with The Rocket Summer. How were these experiences vs. your self booked tours?

RM: The difference about touring with AAR is that all the shows were crazy packed with kids that wanted you to sign their socks and stuff. Our self-booked tours are more intimate, with many less socks to sign. There’s a lot to like about both scenarios. Those rejects are a bunch of really nice guys and we’re all really glad to have gotten to know them. I’m not sure about touring with The Rocket Summer because we haven’t done those couple dates yet, but I’ll let you know. I do know that we wouldn’t start a tour in Cleveland if we were booking it ourselves though. That’s one of the drawbacks about going on someone else’s tour. Sometimes you have to drive a ka-billion miles to get to the first date.

BW: A few years ago you guys came through Dayton and I noticed that you wer selling your photography. I happened to purchase one of the pictures. What was it like to build an album concept all around the photos that were taken on tour? From a song writing perspective, were the songs written in retrospect after seeing the pictures or were they written and then when you looked at the pictures certain songs came to mind?

RM: I’ve done it both ways actually. Usually the picture comes first though, and then I will look at it when writing a song. I started out doing it with a slide projector, and it was kind of neat, but the light inside the projector gets way too hot and you just can’t do it that way during the summer. It got kind of ridiculous. I’d be sitting in my apartment sweating. I wrote the song “In Ohio on Some Steps” the morning after that show you came to, which brings us to question….

BW: We have heard rumors that “In Ohio on Some Steps” is based on Dayton, home of Bettawreckonize. Would you care to confirm or deny these rumors?

RM: It’s all true.

BW: It seems that a lot new great bands seem to be coming off of the left coast. How would you compare the California scene to those you have witnessed across the country?

RM: There’s way more bands here, and a lot of them use mesa/boogie dual rectifier amps. We’ve met a lot of really nice bands all over the place. Sometimes we want to pack up our stuff and move east.

BW: Your thoughts on file sharing and independent music. Will file sharing bring the death of the major labels?

RM: Filesharing is great for independent bands; the word spreads a lot quicker. I wish it would make major labels start to give people a break and charge less for CDs, and make bands think a little bit more about having good packaging. I can’t imagine that it would kill off the majors though. I don’t really know enough about the music biz to make that kind of a prediction.

BW: Who are your biggest influences right now?

RM: The Weakerthans, Superdrag, Wilco, Big Star, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, John Cougar Mellencamp, and many more.

BW: If you were to make a mix tape for Bettawreckonize what would the track list be?

RM: Hey buddy, look. You’re livin’ in the 90’s man. CDs are the new mix tapes. Get with the program. On your CD, I’d put 22 tracks, as many as I could fit. Some of them would be the bands from the last question, like I’d definitely give you Big Star’s “Ballad of El Goodo.” And some others would be Kathleen Edwards “Westby,” Mojave 3 “Return To Sender,” and Teenage Fanclub “About You.” In a couple years though, I’d just let you borrow my I-Pod. By the way, the answer to the first question is a lie.