Hot-crossed Toasters get grilled In The Kitchen

Of all the corny In The Kitchen jokes possible, this week, the Review got toasted - literally. Singer/guitarist Rob "Bucket" Hingley, along with his Toasters, grilled arts editor Lauren Viera on the age-old East vs. West argument during a post-sound check interview in the pseudo kitchen that is Wilder 211. It's all about unity, baby.

Rob "Bucket" Hingley (guitar, vocals): So what do you guys do for laughs in Oberlin?

Lauren Viera: Are you interviewing me?

RH: Yeah.

Rick "Chunk" Faulkner (trombone player): Cow tipping?

LV: No, I haven't done that yet, actually.

RF: Opressor!

RH: Stand up for animal rights, everyone!

LV: Yeah, everybody's really crazy about that around here.

RF: You probably go bashing people who go cow tipping.

RH: You should go Amish bashing around here.

LV: Maybe a little more south of here.... I think there's some Amish communities in southern Ohio.

RF: There's a white-power organization in Pennsylvania called AMISH -

Dave Waldo (keyboards): Kiss me, I'm Amish!

RF: I forget what it stands for...Aryan something. Aryan Militia In Search of Hotdogs.

RH: Okay, Chuck...that was great.

LV: So what do you do for fun on tour? Crosswords? (Waldo has been working diligently on a five-letter word for "down" for the past five minutes.)

RH: We don't have any fun on tour.

LV: Not even when you're on stage?

RH: No, I have fun when I'm on stage, but that's only for a short fraction of the time. This is pretty much what I do.

LV: Sit around, waiting....

RH: This is what we do. (He motions to the crossword.) But we're going to New Orleans later on the tour. That's my favorite city.

LV: I've never been there. I've never even been to New York. That's how West-oriented I am.

RH: So what's the difference between ska in California and ska in the East Coast? I'm going to ask the questions for you.

LV: 'Cause you know all the answers? So you're testing me to see how much I know?

RH: Yeah.

LV: I'm probably the wrong person to ask.

RH: How much do you know about ska music?

LV: Some.

RH: What do you know?

LV: What do I know? That's a very broad question. I think there's definitely a difference between East Coast ska and West Coast ska. I think the East is a lot more...original.

RH: A little more traditional.

LV: Yeah, and the West is just sort of picking up on it and making it a little more punk-oriented. So what do you think is the difference between East and West?

RH: Different influences. I think people have just been doing it longer in the East Coast. To think about Southern California is like a real enigma, in the sense that it's just out of nowhere. But I think that it has to do with the fact that a lot of California bands are coming into it off of a punk-rock background, so there's a lot more bands that were playing punk rock before, and now they're playing ska 'cause it's kind of next-door to them.

LV: What do you like to listen to?

RH: All kinds of stuff. I listen to a lot of non-pop music. I listen to a lot of ethnic music, like third-world stuff.

LV: Do you like jazz?

RH: Not too much; I like stuff that's more rhythm-based. I like Algerian music, flamenco...tons of things. But there's definitely three-zillion ska bands out there.

LV: Do you feel like it's getting too blown up?

RH: In a way, but I feel like what goes up will come down, so what I'm interested to see is not really what's happening right now, but what's going to be happening in about two years when the bubble bursts, and where a lot of these bands that have no roots are going to be standing: are they going to survive or are they going to wither up? Save Ferris is case in point. They were sort of thrust into the scene, and now it's a question of, really, can they perform; can they live up to the expectations of the major label that spent a lot of money. And I think that's going to be the acid test of this music. Because I think if major labels get psyched and throw a lot of money and get disappointed, they'll withdraw that funding as soon as? And to take that music and propell it, and then pull out, there's going to be a lot of people out on a limb and then we'll see what the reality of the situation is. What I'm interested in is not really now, but further down the line a couple of years.

LV: Do you feel like you have a stable seat right now because basically you're on the fence?

RH: We've been around for so long doing what we do, the variances of day to day existance don't really affect us or help us too much in any one day since we have a much wider base to draw on. And what bands like the Toasters have is a foundation that is solid. And with bands that have a bunch of money from a record company that don't have a foundation, what they have is a credit card they're using, essentially. But what happens when it's time to pay the bill, we'll see. I'm basically just sitting on the fence to see what happens right now. As far as the spotlight is concerned, we'll let other people spend money on the advertising, and we'll just do our thing.

LV: You're in a pretty good position right now, then.

RH: I think so, yes. We're not really hungry, so it's not really like we have to do this, or we have to compete. We do what we do. We'll see who's still standing when the dust clears.