assuck is an amazing grindcore band from flrorida that have been playing really fucking fast music for a long time. if you have not heard them, you need to, even if you do not like grindcore, listen to assuck. when you're feeling happy listen to assuck, when you're feeling sad listen to assuck, if you are confused about something listen to assuck, when you go to sleep at night listen to assuck.this interview was done by me and took place on saturday, august 9th at the unitarian universalist church in harvard square at about 8:00 pm. steve koshiba (the bass player) was "too tired" to do the interview so he chilled on the curb like the player he is. stay up steve! and it goes like this.

ME:SO WHY THE HELL DID YOU NAME YOURSELVES ASSUCK?
steve:...rob?
rob:we were in highschool and thought it was funny.

ME:WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FIRST SINGER?
rob:first singer, he wasn't into the same stuff anymore and he quit.

ME:WHAT'S HE INTO NOW?
rob:he went to school for art, he's got a job as a graphic photographer (atleast i think that's what he said)

ME:HE DID STUFF WITH SKELETAL EARTH, RIGHT?
rob:no.

ME:NO?
rob:did he? i don't think so.

ME:THEN I WAS LIED TO.
rob:that's a good possibility.
steve:he sang backup on one of their songs, on one of their records...once.

ME:COS I BOUGHT SOMETHING OFF OF DESPERATE ATTEMPT RECORDS AND IT SAID LIKE"FEATURING PAUL FROM ASSUCK!"
rob:he said like "even the water reeks" like 6 times, that was it.

ME:WHEN DID ASSUCK START?
steve:1987

ME:1987, HUH, SO YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN AROUND FOR 10 YEARS.

steve:yep.
rob:excellent mathematical skills
steve:actually it's 10 years in november.

PETE:NOVEMBER'S A GOOD MONTH TO START A BAND.
ME:YEA, WE STARTED IN NOVEMBER.
steve:see, it's like we said.

ME:BUT THAT WAS 2 YEARS AGO. DO YOU GUYS THINK THAT YOU ARE PIONEERS INGRINDCORE AND THAT YOU WILL BE REMEMBERED

steve:absolutely not.

ME?:FOR REAL?
rob:pioneers? there was grindcore before we started.
steve:we were trying to be fast because all the other bands were trying to be fast, it wasn't us, definately wasn't us.

ME:OKAY, FINE!
steve:mabey we're the only band that's still together.
rob:we just wanted to play fast when we started, i don't know if that makes us pioneers, there were other fast bands then too, you know? you don't agree that there were fast bands back then?

ME:YEA, THERE WERE FAST BANDS, BUT YOU GUYS HAVE YOUR OWN SORT OF SOUND.
rob:well, yea, i mean that's the whole point of having your own band, right?

ME:DO YOU GUYS LIKE BLACK METAL?
steve:i think it's funny
rob:i think it's funny, we played with a black metal band in canada and it was hillarious, they poured blood on themselves.

ME:WHAT WERE THEY CALLED?
steve:race defect
rob:race defect. they gave me a demo tape, it's just funny, you know, to see kids acting all goofy like that, i mean, i guess they take it seriously or whatever, but it's just hillarious, i think.

ME:ARE THERE ANY BLACK METAL BANDS IN FLORIDA?
steve:not worth speaking of. all true black metal comes from scandinavia.
rob:we don't really care, i mean, i don't personally care about black metal, it's funny, but i don't listen to it or anything.

ME:WHAT BANDS DO YOU LIKE?
rob:i like dragbody, i like omegaman from florida. i like florida bands.

ME:DO YOU GUYS HAVE ANYTHING MORE YOU COULD HAVE PUT ON MISERY INDEX TO MAKE IT NOT AS SHORT?
rob:if we had more stuff, it would be on there.

ME:COS YOU COULD ALMOST FIT IT ON A 7"
steve:that's not true.

ME:IF YOU DROPPED ONE SONG AND PUT IT ON 33.
rob:yea, but then it wouldn't sound good. we're all about sounding good.
steve:misery index is about a minute and a half longer than anticapital, and it's two songs less.
rob:so what about that!
steve:so what about that, huh!
rob:so what do you have to say about that!
steve:mister!
rob:how come you didn't complaine about anticapital being too short?

ME:IT WAS PRETTIE SHORT. WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE PLANS?
steve:future plans? ah, we're gonna finnish the tour, we're gonna record a song for a compilation on 702 records, we're gonna do a septic death cover for a septic death cover record, we're gonna go to japan in december, and next summer we're trying to set up a big, crazy type tour with a lot of bands we can't talk about.
rob:grindathon
steve:it will be a grindcore fest.
rob:it will be a grindathon.

ME:ARE YOU STRAIGHT EDGE?
steve:i am.
rob:i'm straight.
steve:steve isn't (steve koshiba).
rob:i wouldn't call us straight edge, i don't beat people up because i don't wanna smoke.

ME:WELL, I CONSIDER MYSELF STRAIGHT EDGE AND DON'T BEAT ANYONE UP.
rob:well that's cool, there's just alot of confusion.

ME:WELL, THERE'S ALOT OF HARDLINERS WHO ARE PRETTIE INTOLLERANT. rob:i do what i want and i don't care what other people do.

ME:HOW OLD ARE YOU?
steve:twenty something.
rob:upper twenties. i'm 27, celebrated my birthday on this very tour actually.

ME:REALLY? WHEN'S YOUR BIRTHDAY?
rob:the 30th of july, yea, it's exciting, i don't even remember where we were.
steve:ohio or indiana or something.

ME: SO HOW'S THE FLORIDA SCENE BEEN?
rob:good. there's good bands there, good places to play there.

ME:WHERE DO YOU PLAY THERE?
rob:we play at 4-3 chaos (i have no idea how it's spelled or if i got that right), a record store in tampa that steve ownes and my girlfriend owns together, and there's plenty of places to play, there's places in gainsville to play, and orlando, we've played orlando like 4 times in the past year. miami, we played down there not too long ago. we like it, we like florida. we're %100 pro-florida.

ME:HOW MANY OTHER BANDS HAVE YOU PLAYED WITH WHO'S NAMES BEGIN WITH THE WORD ASS?
steve:4 or 5.
rob:we did a show that was just bands who's names start with ass.

ME:LIKE ASSFORT?
steve:no, assfactor 4

ME:ASSHOLE PARADE?
steve:yea, we played with them, ass ambassador. someones gonna put out the ass comp.

ME:SO WHERE ARE YOU GOING NEXT?
rob:tommorrow's noo yok, then lon geyeland

PETE:DO YOU MAKE FUN OF THE ACCENT EVERYWHERE?
rob:yea, absolutely
steve:bahstan hah-bah
rob:bahstan
steve:you guys got bad ass baked beans here.

HOW ABOUT NEW HAMPSHIRE?
rob:noo hampsha! (flawlessly) noo hampsha's all right, the snow was too deep there last time though.

PETE:THAT WAS FUCKING COLD.
ME:THAT WAS A FREEZING NIGHT.
rob:we try to make fun of everything, i think we're generally light hearted. we're happy. happy core. happy grindcore.

ME:ANY LAST COMMENTS?
steve:steve koshiba knows more about monkeys than anyone in hardcore. it says so in monkeybite.
rob:it's true, it's a fact. it's in print, it must be true.