#shamokin is real too

[legallauren]

pennsylvania things

buck’s from hershey. I’m from outside of philly. we are not the same because rural pennsylvania is its own world but i have some thoughts™

-buck as a liberal from a republican area in a swing state is EXTREMELY concerned about voting and everyone around him voting and even years of living in a solid blue state does not shake off the swing state stress

-buck lost his fucking mind when the eagles won the superbowl and 100% tried to climb a streetlamp in solidarity with the people of philadelphia. in retrospect he’s grateful he didn’t know athena yet, or eddie....and that maddie wasn’t around to see that one.

-buck has strong opinions about the dallas cowboys, the patriots and the giants namely he hates them all. he also hates the celtics and bets on villanova winning every march madness.

-buck went down to philly with his buddies a couple of times in high school and has strong feelings about which cheesesteak is best and the answer is neither genos nor pats because they’re tourist traps and not actually good at making cheesesteaks

-buck used to drive to lancaster a lot to hang out with friends in a city setting. he loves central market and he misses some of the amish bread he used to get there. even after everything bobby’s taught him in the kitchen, buck can’t replicate whatever effect no electricity has on the bread they make.

-there’s a dairy maybe 20 minutes outside of lancaster city that’s about halfway from hershey to lancaster where they would put the bottle calves out into a pen where the public can pet them. buck still thinks of it as one of his happy places. what’s better than a baby cow determinedly trying to suck your fingers in case milk might come from them. ok that sounds weird but you gotta be around baby cows to understand.

-buck’s never going to say it out loud but hershey’s chocolate isn’t even good. 

-sometimes buck can still smell manure in the air. it’s weird because going back it smells so awful at first, but catching a whiff randomly just smells like PA.

-buck’s parents didn’t ever take them to hershey park. that just wasn’t their scene, but that’s fine because buck went with school for his 8th grade graduation and has a picture with a reese’s cup mascot to prove it.

-buck doesn’t think hershey park is the best theme park in pa. His friend david in middle school invited him to come for his family’s annual trip to this place called knoebels grove. david’s family used to mine coal in shamokin, a little dying town that they visited before going to the amusement park where the roads are too narrow for one car to park and another to comfortably pass by. knoebels is magical. there’s a stream with swans that live in it running through the park, and a log flume, and this one wooden roller coaster called the Phoenix that is like 100 years old and if you don’t do a good job shoving your feet up under the edge of the wall with the lap bar on it then you feel like you’re going to fly out of your seat down every hill. buck’s ankles were bruised to hell but he rode it 4 times back to back with david and his cousins. but the most magical thing at the park is the carousel. it was built in 1913 and buck remembers because he was 13 when he rode it for the first time. buck still remembers how crazy it was to learn all about the brass ring because the carousel had rings you grabbed by leaning off of the horses on the edge of the ride. buck had never been on a carousel that had been as fun as that one before. there’s a giant carnival organ playing old time marching songs and tunes buck heard sometimes on his dad’s oldies station he would play in the car when they drove places together. between the noise of the carousel and the smell of cotton candy and popcorn and french fries in the air, the noise of the carnival organ and kids screaming with joy and some with tantrums after a long day of fun, not to mention all the brightly colored horses and the lights and the sheer joy of everyone...buck was amazed to find his 13 year old body was long enough to reach the rings and when he looked down after the latest turn of the carousel he was amazed to find a shiny brass ring in his hand. a worker comes over and asked his name and hands him tickets for a free ride and they announce over the loudspeaker that “evan buckley has grabbed the brass ring” buck smiled so wide his face hurt. -buck can tell you about taking a bus trip to philadelphia to see the art museum and how in fifth grade he thought they were going to mount olympus when the first view of the museum was from i76 where it looks like a greek or roman temple sitting on a mountain overlooking the schuylkill river. he can tell you about standing at the base of the rocky steps and about standing inside the museum and looking up the grand staircase at the bright gold sculpture of diana pulling back her arm to shoot an arrow and listening to the tour groups talk about the massive tapestries lining the walls of the balcony and feeling small and little and weird that someone had loved these objects so well they lit them up and put them in a museum to keep nice forever. -buck will tell you about betsy ross and the symbolism of the american flag and how she played a part in making america a team with all thirteen colonies represented. that’s just some of the stuff they teach you in pennsylvania state curriculum when talking about how the whole country came together in philadelphia. -buck has never been to scranton and if one more person asks about while he’s trying to zone out and watch the office on netflix for the 15th time he might throw a fit. the only reason to visit scranton is the office and buck just wasn’t a fan yet back when he was avoiding the living room where his parents kept the only television in the house. he wasn’t about to ask phillip and margaret to stop watching the news to watch an nbc comedy, that wasn’t a thing they did. -buck doesn’t say youse (like philadelphians or people from new jersey that moved to PA might) nor does he say yinz because he’s not from pittsburgh either. buck doesn’t say wooder or jawn or any other philly slang. buck did still laugh at that SNL bit the first time someone showed him it because his friend jason’s family moved to hershey from down state outside of Philly and Jason was the second one who sent him the video of kate mckinnon talking about “murdur.” Jason laughed his ass off at how bad the accent was but said they weren’t too far off.  -once buck was driving back from lancaster and saw an advertisement for “Litiz” and being 17 and a boy and seeing a name that seeming to say “le tits” just made him laugh too hard not to drive through. buck got out to get some ice cream with his friend he was driving with and saw one of the best things he’s ever seen in his life. in this tiny little drainage ditch that seemed to be rerouting a tiny stream there were just hundreds upon hundreds of little wild ducklings. it was right around dusk when the last half of the sun was going down, and buck watched maybe 20 momma ducks herd a couple hundred ducklings back down the stream to where their nests were. it’s still one of the most adorable things buck has ever seen. ducks hold a special place in buck’s heart as a result.

-sometimes when buck is feeling nostalgic for a home that was never his, sometimes when he needs a weird type of comfort that reminds him of driving around with maddie in the middle of nowhere pennsylvania, buck looks up christian rock stations. buck’s never been christian enough to listen for that reason, it’s just that sometimes in rural pennsylvania it comes down to either someone shouting about god’s wrath with all the vitriol of an 1890s revival preacher or some rock music that mentions faith and hallelujahs here and there. and honestly buck really can’t admit this....some of the music is good. switchfoot started as a christian rock band too! and katy perry did religious music before she was ever a california girl ok? -buck nearly cries laughing every time people show him or talk about gritty. how the hell the broad street bullies aka the flyers decided gritty was the right move for a mascot he still doesn’t know. On a side note even though he doesn’t care really about baseball, Buck is thrilled when they announce the return of the original design of the Phillie Phanatic. the temporary design had just been wrong in so many ways. one night watching john oliver reruns with eddie in the loft of the firehouse, buck actually falls to the floor laughing at gritty running around in a supreme court justice outfit.

[houstonlocalus-blog]

Nailing It Down: An Interview with The Kickback

The Kickback. Photo courtesy of the band

  Chicago rockers The Kickback are fresh off the release of Weddings & Funerals, a triumphant follow up to 2015’s debut entitled Sorry All Over The Place. With their catchy hooks and memorable riffs, the group found the ingredient to keep listeners wanting more. Currently on the road, vocalist Billy Yost spoke to FPH ahead of the band’s show at Warehouse Live on July 23rd to talk about separating themselves in a competitive city, letting out the inner parrothead, and the adversity of being a tour manager.  

  Free Press Houston: I’m into how the band is so diverse; you opened/will open for both Bush and Passion Pit!

  Billy Yost: Yeah, I think people have a little bit of a hard time nailing [our sound] down, so we got to do that. It’s been a blessing to being held back. We’re just happy to be here.

  FPH: So is it safe to assume you are the missing link between the two?

  BY: You know, that’s what we’ve heard just oodles and oodles of times. People send us a lot of fan mail letting us know that we’re the missing link between Passion Pit and Bush. That will probably go on my tombstone or something, that we’re the missing link between a synthpop band from the late 2000’s and grunge rock band from the mid to late ‘90’s.

  FPH: A lot of younger rock bands I’ve heard from lately happen to hail from Chicago, and other genres have similar situations, for example Atlanta is where all of the new, prominent rappers are coming from. Are you guys feeling like a Seattle right now? I mean, is there pressure on those local bands to outdo the others?

  BY: I think a lot of the rock coming from Chicago right now tends to be more garage-y, and a little more kind of throwback – I mean, it’s great, but it’s not what we really do. We just played with Twin Peaks last week, those guys are awesome. Obviously the city also has the bigger bands like the Orwells, Ne-Hi, and that whole little crew. We’re not any of that, really. We’re our own thing, I guess. But it’s just music, not, like, rocket science. I think there’s so much good stuff coming out of Chicago that it’s hard to keep track of all of it, but it is definitely a good place to be for rock music right now.

  FPH: Are you keeping up with these other scenes around the country, specifically Atlanta? Do you dig the sounds of mumble rap?

  BY: It’s really cool to see that, despite the diversification that electronic and social media has offered, in terms of fusing all of these sounds, geographic locations are still able to have some sort of identity. I enjoy that. But the mumble rap thing is real hard for me, because we have people like Chance [the Rapper] right now. Someone is always going to overtake something, so you just have to grab the aspects you like and keep pressing on. It’s a weird time for rock music right now, and I think it’s even weirder for hip-hop, which is awesome. I’m enjoying it.

  FPH: What about the select few that are fusing rap with rock? But not, like, nu metal; rather, new kids like Lil Peep, who claims to be the best emo rapper.

  BY: That emo rap stuff from Soundcloud is pretty heavy. I’m not educated enough to have an opinion on him, though, for sure.

  FPH: He actually sampled this emo band from Texas, Mineral, and got a cease-and-desist from them.

  BY: People are finding ways to enjoy stuff that most would say have no business going together. They’re able to either find something so cool or such a trainwreck that you have to listen to it at least once. I’m all for it. It’s just such a strange time, and I guess it’s because people are willing to take chances. While cities are still able to have their own identities, there isn’t as much importance on what’s acceptable. I feel like there used to be a lot of rules, for examples bands couldn’t wear shorts on stage. It was one of the unwritten rules of bands. But that stuff just isn’t true anymore. A lot of bands take themselves too serious, and it’s cool seeing time go on and that change.

  FPH: But you represent more than just Chicago – you’re leading the path for millennial parrotheads, aren’t you?

  BY: Oh, I haven’t heard that one before. That’s pretty good. The only thing I have to say about Jimmy Buffett is, once for my mom’s birthday, my brothers and I – we’re all fairly musical people – formed a band to play her party. For that party we had to play a bunch of cool, old-school songs, bands like Paul Revere and the Raiders and other one hit wonders. But right in the middle of the set was “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” and that was the song we had to play two times during that goddamn birthday party. You could look around to each of my brothers and see all of their soul being sucked out of them; I’ve never seen my brothers look so sad while my mom was having such a good time. So that is probably the short version of my heavy Jimmy Buffett influence.

  FPH: I guess I have to thank Buffett for my love of concerts, because he was my first.

  BY: Was it really? Are you scarred for life, or have you found peace? I mean, people can hate on the guy, but he’s stuck around, and he’s stuck around for a reason. But were you able to pull something from that?

  FPH: You know, not really. But on YouTube there was some recommended livestream of his, which I obviously checked out. Still not for me.

  BY: I don’t want to say anything, but I think your Free Press credentials might be revoked if you’re getting recommended videos of Jimmy Buffett on YouTube.

  FPH: According to one of your songs, you lost your love in central Pennsylvania, but while you were there did you come across the Billy Yost that ran for mayor of the city of Shamokin?

  BY: No, is there really a guy name Billy Yost that ran for mayor? Dammit! I try to live my life like there is no one else even named Billy, let alone Billy Yost. That’s kind of a drag. I don’t know the guy’s policies, so I’m not willing to endorse him at this time. I actually ran for school board while I was a senior in High School in South Dakota; I lost by approximately 70 votes, and that was a hard loss to take. So if that guy feels like reaching out, depending on how his campaign goes, I’m here for name-related counseling, if he comes in empty-handed. But I wish him the best, unless he’s running on some white nationalist ticket – obviously I couldn’t endorse the guy.

  FPH: Perhaps it’s plausible that a fan of yours might show up to one of his events thinking it’s you, or vice versa?

  BY: Yeah, so now I’m going to have to drum up some public relations and have a split ad, a “so you know this isn’t me,” kind of thing.

  FPH: So there’s no doubt that being a newer touring band is quite difficult, but do you think tour managers have an even more difficult task? I understand that you have one of the most prestigious in the game, Howie the puppet?

  BY: Yeah, I wouldn’t be a tour manager – I mean, we make absolutely no money. If I was making twice that I still wouldn’t tour manage even my favorite band. It’s like wrangling cats, but cats who are unnecessarily taking adderall. It just seems like a real drag. Our tour manager, Jesse, I’m not sure how he hasn’t stabbed us all to death, multiple times a day. We just spent 40 minutes at a truck stop trying to get our back door to open because a sleeping bag fell down and was hanging around the lock of the van. We had to break into it using a bass string and a fish hook, and doing a classic “drop and pull.” I think that’s an average day of tour managing. To anyone that tour manages bands, number 1: why? Number 2: there’s a special circle in heaven for you.

  Howie has been in an extended stay at rehab. He’s coming back soon, though. Like I said, being TM is a hard job, and I think Howie got real burnt out after the first record. I’ve seen a lot of outrage from people about him not being on the road, so I think he will be with us on the second leg of the tour.

  FPH: Oh, I imagine. But in a way, he got you guys further in your careers than ever imagined, yeah?

  BY: Yeah, for having no legs he’s done a lot of movement for us. A lot of successful public relations, too. Especially for not having blood or a pulse either.

  The Kickback performs at Warehouse Live on Sunday, July 23rd. 

Nailing It Down: An Interview with The Kickback this is a repost