Ep106: Keith Brammer (Die Kreuzen)

Hail hail! Welcome to the Home of the Protonic Reversal. Today’s episode features another great in-studio guest (man, we’ve been lucky with these!) Keith Brammer, from Die Kreuzen, Wreck, Crime and Judy, et cetera! This wide ranging conversation touches upon such topics as: -The weird novelty of listening to one’s own music -Production quality and choices (You can do anything, and THAT’S what you want?) -Punk as an encompassing thing vs. an ossified set of rules -Bands whose sound indicated their record collection -Solidifying songs in practice vs. at shows -“I guess I can do that one and not feel physically ill.” -Starting with no preconcieved notion of the “rules” -Working at the top of your skill level, whatever it might be -“A wide swath of nonsense and garbage” back then, just like now -Touring and booking shows is definitely better with cell phones -Lee Ving is the nicest -The incredibly bad logic of throwing a shoe at a band -Recognizing the opportunity for a situation that will make a great story -Aerosmith -Telling the Rick Nielsen story again (deal with it) -“Gone Away” as the most realized DK song -Daydream Nation doesn’t entirely lend itself to being played live -The celebrated utility of a dry erase board in the practice space -Doing useless demos for Mechanic Records -Wasting the money of major labels -Wreck, and the Carnival Strippers -Picking a movie for your song to be in: PCU vs. Speed -Cover choices -All roads lead to D.O.A. -Discovering bands way later than everyone else -Picking bands to open the reunion shows, and doing the reunion shows in general -Tom Hazlemeyer’s Bash -Creating something that didn’t exist -How just being able to fuck with people’s heads is extremely rewarding