The Holy Cross Liquors Cook In The Kitchen

The Holy Cross Liquors are one of those Oberlin bands that dares to offer a different sound: rockabilly. The band is made up of sophomores Andrew Simmons and Joe Bernache on vocals, sophomore Matt Asti on drums, first-year Jason Klauber on guitar and first-year Steve Wood on bass. Review writer Jesse Woghin caught up with the band this week in Wilder to discuss their blend of roots country and raunchy rock and roll. See their debut performance at tonight's closing reception for "Everything Must Go" in Fisher Hall at 8 p.m.

Jesse Woghin (JW): So the first question is where are the dancing girls? I heard that they're a part of your stage show.

Steve Wood (SW): They don't rehearse with us ... (laughter) ... The thing is that we, uh, forgot the combination to the locks on the chains around their necks. So, they haven't been out of the room in like a week. If we don't find the combination by the show, we're not gonna be able to have them.

Andrew Simmons (AS): We've been shoving food under the door.

Jason Klauber (JK): I'm kinda worried about them.

SW: What, they can't kill each other. They can't even reach each other.

JK: You think there's gonna be some Lord of the Flies shit?

SW: Well there can't be. Their chains are only, like, what, a foot long?

AS: I really wanna talk about the music.

Joe Bernache (JB): Alright, let's talk about the music. It used to be about the band, guys.

JW: How long have you guys been playing together?

AS: Since the beginning of the year, I guess. Sometime in October.

JK: No, no, that's not fair to say. We're not good enough to be saying that.

JK: I'll take it upon myself to be serious and I'll say that, um, a few weeks into the year, Steve moseyed on into my room, and we played together-

SW: You got that "mosey"? Write that down.

JW: Got it. It's in there.

JK: He dropped the words "minimalist rockabilly." I dropped the word "rockabilly." And, you know, it was a marriage made in heaven. Steve knew all these guys from up in North Hall and I was still way down in the boondocks in South - still am. Steve sorta hounded me for a while, tried to get me to come to practice, and I thought he was kind of a goofy kid, so I was like, ya know, "I'm not gonna go to practice." But one day I was like, "You know, I think I'm gonna give it a shot." I gave it a shot and the room just lit on fire. We hadn't had a drummer yet and Matt took it upon himself to be our drummer, because he was our friend and liked the band and decided that he might take drums over Winter Term.

SW (to Matt): Tell 'em about the dream you had.

Matt Asti (MA): (long pause) Oh yeah, the dream. Well... wait... what dream? Oh that! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, no. I was thinking about the one with your mom first, but that's not the one you're talking about. Yeah, the one where the angel Gabriel actually came down wearing a ride cymbal on his head and he had the words "Winter Term" written across his chest. That was that.

JW: Anything symbolic in there, or just that the angel Gabriel likes to rock?

JB: You could probably say it was "cymbal-ic." (general groaning and mock applause)

SW: I mean, when you get right down to it, we were commissioned by God to develop this group, this band.

JW: Do you want to explain the name of the band?

JK: Steve's got a t-shirt that says "Holy Cross Liquors" on it and we thought it'd be a good band name. We hope too many people don't get it confused and think that we're people who like to lick holy crosses, cuz we don't. They're too splintery.

AS: We just like to drink.

JK: We came back from winter term and one of the first nights back we got together the drummer and we were pretty enthusiastic about the sound. We've had about four rehearsals since really technically three, because one of them was after pitcher beer night. I was leaning against the piano and it sucked. I was dragging the tempo, too.

SW: Yeah, if you ever do that again, we're gonna keelhaul you.

JW: You guys have a pretty unique sound, around these parts at least, because there's really no such thing as rockabilly in Oberlin, Ohio these days.

AS: Has there ever been any to begin with?

JW: There may never have been. You want to describe your sound a little?

SW: Well, you know, there was this Texas Jug Tugboat whatever the hell that shit was (laughter). That's like a false prophet. I mean it was great music, but there was nothing - they weren't bringing a message to the children.

JW: Are you talking about the band that played at the Sco last week?

SW: No, this was Zach Hickman's Gut Bucket (drowned out by laughter)

JK: Holy Cross Liquors is all about the children.

AS: We teach life's lessons.

SW: I mean, to play music like that is certainly a noble cause to pursue. But if you're gonna do it and you're not going to try to teach something, bring a message of hope to the people, then-

MA: And good nutrition. Hygiene.

JW: So basically it's like a D.I.Y. thing? You're bringing the kids up.

JK: I don't really know that that's really what it is. I think that we wanna rock out and I think we wanna do it in a different way than other people are doing it and I think it's a conscious thing. We like the fact that some of us are from the city, some of us are from the boondocks, and-

SW: Joe's from the boondocks.

JB: I am from the boondocks.

AS: We all bring our different sources of inspiration.

JK: That's why we have a song called "City Boy," which is actually...

JW: While we're on the subject, what are some influences on your sound?

SW: Certainly Gene Vincent.

JK: Gene Vincent is the god of rockabilly and we love him. We think he has a lot to do with us. I think we sound a lot like a band whose initials are R.H.H., and I'm not gonna mention that, because if you don't know them, you'd probably like us a lot better than you would if you had heard them.

AS: The Cramps.

SW: The Stray Cats.

MA: I've never heard of any of these bands. ...

JW: Do you guys have a secret sensitive side?

JK: Yeah, it's expressed in a song called "We Didn't Mean It" ...

SW: We have to get into our sensitive side, though, it takes possession of us like the spirits or something. There's a long ritual. We do a lot of dancing, drink a lot of whiskey, and then we all have to climb to the top of the crane in the construction area and we jump into the pit. As we fall, the spirits of rockabilly slow us down and we float into the pit and have visions.

JK: And it was the day music was reborn... I think that, going back to the influences question, we're much more influenced by some of the elements than any particular band. Our biggest influences are all sorta summed up in the course of one of our songs, which is "Whiskey, Cigars, Beer and Cooter." (Andrew makes choking noise)

SW: Well, if we're gonna sing that in front of people, we might as well put it in the interview.

AS: Yeah, but I was gonna save it for the times that we're too drunk to really remember the reactions of people.

JK: What's wrong with whiskey, cigars, beer and cooter?

JB: I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

AS: It's beautiful.

Hangin' Around: Members of the band The Holy Cross Liquors prepare themselves for the closing reception (to celebrate the photo show "Everything Must Go") tonight. (photo by Jesse Woghin)