Andy Slob Interview by Mickey DeSoto
Originally printed in Rocks Off Zine The Slobs are...well a bunch of fucking slobs that play fast and catchy punk rock with snotty vocals and great guitar playing. They have five singles out on bass player Andy "Slob" Bussing's label, Centsless records. I decided to call Andy at his house in Cincinnati and do an interview while he was eating Skyline chili dogs and guzzling a 40 ounce. RO: Why did you decide to call yourselves The Slobs?

S: We were thinking of names and we wanted a name that started with “the” like all the classic bands. Chip and Pat called me up one day and said how about calling it The Slobs. We own a lot of records and couldn’t think of any bands called The Slobs so it kind of stuck and applied to how we sound live. Some people try to call us The Drunken Slobs but we don’t like that.

RO: Who’s the biggest slob in the band?

S: Living style or on stage?

RO: Both.

S: I would say I can live with the most dirt.

RO: What kind of dirt could you find in your house on a normal day?

S: I clean it, but it’s just that I can deal with not taking showers.

RO: Who’s the biggest slob on stage?

S: I would say John gets more wasted than any of us. I can say that since he’s not here to defend himself.

RO: Well since he’s not here to defend himself, what’s the most fucked up thing he’s done on stage to embarrass the band?

S: Three times already he’s falled on the drum set. He takes his pants off. He gets girls to do back up vocals that don’t even know the songs. He puts the mic in peoples’ faces who aren’t even singing along. It tends to make the show hilarious or awful - whichever point in the spectrum you are at.

RO: Does it ever piss you off when he’s doing this stuff?

S: You’re gonna make me slag John aren’t you? From time to time, but I think it adds to the whole show. It’s better than the band playing and being pissed off ‘cause it’s sucking so bad. You know, just have fun and just try and help the people have fun that are there.

RO: What is The Slobs’ beer of choice?

S: Whatever is $3.99 a 12 pack and that’s usually Weidman around here. When we go out of town we spend an extraordinary amount of time searching out sheap beer we’ve never tried before. That’s how we pass the time out on the road. We found this stuff called Stag beer in St. Louis one time.

RO: What’s the band’s favorite liquor?

S: Pat and Chip don’t really drink any liquor. John’s really partial to Early Times and every once in a while I takke a little part in some Early Times. It’s bottom shelf liquor. It’s pretty smooth...it’s better than George Dickel, Old Granddad, and Old Man Tucker.

RO: Why are you guys so into Grand Funk Railroad?

S: We like them because they have a nice, old, raw sound. Personally I think the bass player is really good. Also no other band out there has put a bunch of real reviews on the cover about how bad they suck. All these reviews of critics saying, “I have no idea why these guys are selling out coliseums and hundreds of thousands of records. The drumming is boring and the guitar playing is awful.” You gotta like a band with that kind of nerve. Only thing is their singer became a religious nut and put out a religious album, but you kind of got to discount that.

RO: Since you like classic rock so much, what is it about punk rock you like that makes you want to play it?

S: It’s easy to play! I like the energy. It’s a good time, ya know. Like going to see Yes isn’t that much of a beer drinking good time. It doesn’t make you want to jump around. It promotes sitting down basically. Classic rock is fine to have on if you’re around the house cleaning the dishes but when you go out you wanna see a band jumping around acting like a bunhc of idiots.

RO: When did you start Centsless Records?

S: 1992. I had money I wanted to throw away. I’m a fairly big record buyer and thought it would be fun to put out records. That and nobody else would put out records by our band.

RO: So The Slobs have two releases on Centsless. How many other releases are on the label?

S: We just finished up number six. So far us, Vendebate, which is one of my earlier bands, The Econothugs and now Archie and the Pukes are now on the roster. There’s a couple of things locally I’d like to put out, but nothing’s definite. I want to see how some of it turns out and then decide. I don’t spend a whole lot of time searching around.

RO: Will a Slobs full length be on Centsless?

S: Yeah. It’ll be finished when we’re done. We’ve already been working on it for about a year. Some people have been asking us to do singles and comps and it’s kind of eating away at our soungs we have for the album.

RO: What other singles or comps are you guys getting ready to do?

S: We’re going to be on a comp on Very Small Records. It’s going to be a 7 inch and a 12 inch of 100 bands doing songs thirty seconds or shorter. It’s supposed to be out in May or something. The song is called “Bomb Threat.” Eric Davidson from The New Bomb Turks is putting out a comp that’s coming out some time. And we’ve got a 7 inch that’s coming out on Junx Records that we just finished mixing. Hopefully that will get us out there a little better.

RO: Once you are out there a little bit better do you plan on doing any long tours?

S: We all have jobs and stuff so it would be like two weeks. It would be fun to go to California for like two weeks or something and see if anyone gives a shit about us.

RO: Why did you decide to turn your basement into a recording studio?

S: We went into a studio and found out if you go in and drink a lot you end up wasting a lot of money. Or not liking it or rushing stuff ‘cause you’re paying by the hour. You come out with something you don’t want to remix ‘cause you don’t want to pay the extra fifty bucks. I’d been making fairly decent money so I decided to put a studio in the basement. Now all these punk rock bands want to come in and record for free like The Hookers. I don’t want to charge a lot. I get real enjoyment out of watching other bands work and start yelling at each other. They get down there and just start sucking. They practice all week ‘cause they’re recording and they can’t even do one fucking song.

RO: Who’s the band that’s been the worst recording down there?

S: The Twerps. They want some kind of perfected thing which is hard to do. Now they’ve got five guys in the band and they’ve all got separate ideas how they want things to sound like. They can’t merge on a common ground point.

RO: So The Twerps are the biggest whiners.

S: If you want me to go on the record saying that. Yeah!

RO: Which celebrities’ ass would you like to kick?

S: I’ve never been asked that question before. I think the obvious choice is Rush Limbaugh but you couldn’t get a solid punch in on his fat body so it really wouldn’t be much fun. You know that Carnie show that comes on after Letterman? I really don’t like that and I can’t fall asleep to that show so I wouldn’t mind seeing her get run over by a truck?

RO: What show is that?

S: It’s the girl from Wilson Phillips and she’s got a talk show now called Carnie and she’s all happy and perky. She’s got transvestites on and stuff. I’d love to watch some guy walk into that show Singled Out on MTV with a fucking machine gun and gun all of those pieces of shit down. Anybody that has anything to do with that show deserves to fucking die because that is the most pathetic thing to ever have happened. I watch it to get myself pissed off.

RO: Describe a typical fan of The Slobs.

S: Most of them don’t get out because they are old. They’ve had that kid. They wanna go out and have a good time and drink a beer but they’re not allowed to. Other then that there’s a lot of younger kids who are kinda scared of us because we’re old. They buy the records and t-shirts but they don’t talk to us.

RO: Have you guys ever done a show that’s gotten you into trouble?

S: We are supposedly banned from Stache’s in Columbus for what our driver did. I know you like those drunken stories. After the show our singer and a friend of ours were drunk and fell down and knocked into me and the guy that drove us so naturally we got up and shoved them. One of the ladies at the bar saw that and kicked our driver out, so he took it the wrong way and climbe up on the marque and started taking letters off and whiping ‘em out into the street. So she came out and called him “Mr. Anarchy” and stuff. We’re sitting around and the police show up and take him into the back of the car to run his record. We were scared to leave because we were obviously drunk and the police were kind of staking out the car. It was a real drag because there was about eight inches of snow on the ground. It makes me want to go back there and play more. None of these cheesy ass name changes...just walk in there with the same name. When we’re big and popular they’ll be wanting us back.

RO: What’s better, Skyline Chili or White Castle?

S: Late at night I prefer White Castle. It’s a little bit greasier but you get a better crowd at White Castle. Really it’s just the dregs of society that hang out there arounf two or three o’clock.

RO: How many of those little burgers can you eat?

S: I’ve never really tried, but I imagine if you forced me I could eat 10 or 15 of them.
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