articles

SELECT MAGAZINE - AUGUST 1997 RADISH

Nirvana with a 15-year-old frontman? No way, they dream only of Urusei Yatsura flexis...

Like, who are these guys? The next Nirvana already?

Yup, kinda. Radish are John Kent (17, quiet, drums), Bryan Blur (29, takes snuff, bass) and Ben Kweller (15, guitar, voice, songs). Hailing from Greenville, Texas they practice every day at 1pm on a fine Persian rug at Ben's family home. No age hassles for Bryan either. " He's very immature, so it's easy to hang out together," deadpans Ben. " I just tell 'em about the old great bands of the '80s," smirks Bryan. " Like twisted sister."

What do they sound like, dude? Cranking it up with harrowing tunefulness, Ben hasn't got the reedy treble of an unbroken voice but a raw howl of rage and celebration, displayed on current 45 'Little Pink Stars'. They call it 'Sugar Metal', where The Beatles, The BeachBoys, and The Hollies meet Sonic Youth, Weezer and Pavement. "Aggressive guitars fused with pretty melodies, and falsetto voices once in a while," says Ben. "We love to rock and have our freak-outs, but at the same time we smile and be happy."

Perhaps these are songs of unusual provenance...

Indeed. Try 'Apparition Of Purity', about a man who loves a ghost, or, 'Dear Aunt Arctica', concerning the KKK burning churches - both on the forthcoming debut LP 'Restraining Bolt'. " Kids today have as much to say as 30-year-olds," opines Ben. " They have to grow up fast because so much bullshit's happening in society so early on."

Inevitable Nirvana comparisons mystify him.

" I don't know where all that stuff came from - maybe cos I used to have blonde hair past my eyes and our bass player's kind of tall and lanky."

Don't mention Hanson either.

"He's fuckin' 30 years old [points at Bryan]. How can we be teeny-boppers? Anyway, we've been together for four years. We're a proper band." As if to illustrate the gulf between them, Ben and Bryan express extreme approval of.....Urusei Yatsura! Apparently, a split-flexi given away free with a fanzine would delight them more than Eternal Life. " Wow - we'd have to break up after doing that," saya Ben.

Any craziness about this new surge to fame?

" Meeting Joe Strummer was really cool," says Ben. "He played 'London Calling' and forgot the words." There was a showcase at New York City's CBGB's club that provoked a feeding-frenzy of record company executives and sent them into the big time. "There were all these suits and ties wanting to get involved, and it was kind of cool to be able to tell them to fuck off," says Ben. Certain well-meaning old-timers have obviously had a word about how to avoid madness and premature death in the rock game. "The main thing they said was.' Beware of girls and drugs,'" says Ben. " We actually wanna kill rock stars," adds Bryan, "cos we hate that whole rock 'n' roll egocentric mentality."

For someone worth nearly $2 million of recording contract, Ben's no loud chump. He claims to be as worthy as a "good carpenter", and sees his liking of the Net and Dungens & Dragons as proof of top-bracket nerd-dom. " It's cool to meet celebrities," he concurs, "but it has no significance whatsoever. "Wiht a Phoenix appearance under their belts, they tour America before doing Reading and V97. "It'll be fun," says Ben, "and it'll kick major ass!"

IAN HARRISON

Kerrang! October 1997

Lounge Act

Today Radish are somewhere in the UK on their Kerrang!-sponsored tour. Last week, they flew us out to Greenville, Texas to watch them play to an audience of four people in frontman Ben Kweller's parents' living room..... Radish are playing as if their lives depend on it. Singer/guitarist Ben Kweller swings wildly around, dropping to his knees. Drummer John Kent pounds his drums like they just insulted his family. Bassist Bryan Blur is, frankly, rocking like a bastard, his dreadlocks lashing Ben as they share vocals on a single mike, The trio are having a whale of a time, and they sound great. Just imaging what they'd be like on a stage, with more than four people here. Welcome to Greenville, Texas. We're in the living room of the Kweller household. Ben's mother Dee is playing enthusiastic air guitar as she watches her boy kick ass. His father and co-manager Howie (or 'Big H') is in an adjacent room, busily updating Radish's website. Ben's parents, are, like cool. Hopefully the weird old lady from just along the road won't be waddling over to complain about the noise. She could be forgiven, though, considering it's a bright Sunday and Greenville is a religious town. Where most American towns have a liquor store on every corner, Greenville has a church. Radish have spent the last couple of weeks lugging their amps to and from the Kweller garage, rehearsing hard. Tomorrow, they fly to Paris to begin a European tour. As we settle down on the back porch with Cokes, Ben's younger sister Abby returns from piano lessons. His other sister Heidi has a new boyfriend coming over. The cute house Chihuahua ( ''Or shitter,'' adds Bryan, '' that's what he does best!'') scampers over our laps. Earlier this year, Radish came to England on a media missile. The hype threatened to swallow them whole, but the trio ultimately rode the wave. Their shows were strong and their interviews showed them to be Nice Blokes. Ben Kweller is certainly the sharpest 16-year-old you could possibly meet. Faultlessly polite and bright, he has a disarmingly worldly way about him.. This is clearly due, in part, to his good upbringing. Neither of his musically- inclined parents despaired when he became glued to a guitar at the age of 10 and started taking lessons from old Trig Ward, a local master. " When I was a little girl,'' says Dee Kweller, '' I wanted to become an actress and a singer. For various reasons I couldn't do that. So I wanted to make sure there was nothing to stand in Ben's way.'' Ben was born in San Francisco, but spent formative years in Maryland. His Dad finished medical school, then joined the Rural Health Service. The Kwellers moved around a lot. '' We'd get a phone call every month,'' recalls Ben, '' saying they had a place in Bumf**k, New Mexico that needed a doctor. We eventually moved down here.'' John's family settled in Greenville 12 years ago. Bryan lives 30 minutes away in Rockwell. While Bryan tried his luck in a succession of Austin bands, Ben and John suffered school as '' the greasy-haired, stoner, in-a-band-but-never-gonna-get-anywhere kids''. ''As soon as I'm financially able and old enough,'' says Ben ''I won't hesitate to get the f**k out of here! I wanna go live in Boston, or, somewhere else that's civilised. The people aren't very open- minded here. You get tired of them.'' ''This is a bible belt town'' says Bryan. ''Pretty conservative. There's a black part of the town that's really poor. A big class separation, too. There's a lot of cowboys out here.'' Ben eventually teamed up with bassist Ryan Green, who had played with John for years. Ryan persuaded Ben to call John. " This little kid phones and says he writes his own songs!" John scoffs. " I had to think of an excuse not to come over!" " You were just a lazy bastard," mocks Bryan. " Eventually I did go," continues Bryan," and it was f**king awesome." " Originally, we we're gonna have a girl on second guitar," saya Ben. " But she just sat and watched the rehearsals. So she didn't make the band." "She should have been a groupie," Bryan chuckles. After Ben's barmitzvah, Radish independently realised their 'Hello' EP, then played their first gig on August 13, 1994. The venue was a local alcohol-free youth club called Chauncey's. Ben disappears, returning with a framed copy of the flyer. " It was hard to find other shows," he says " There are no clubs here." " I'd be on the phone with the 'Yellow Pages' " recalls John, " thinking of places we could play. A golf place, a skate rink, the bowling alley...." Radish persisted, experiencing bizarre shows like the one at Dallas' Club Dada. " All our parents were there going, ' Our sons are playing a show! They're so cute!'," laughs Ben. " There was this big dude, really wasted, and he was the only one dancing. Eventually, he took off his shirt and pulled off his pants. It was like, 'Damn! This dude's gettin' down!'." The trio released their first full-length indie album, 'Dizzy', in 1996. Ben hands over a copy - it looks professional, and sounds none too bad either. A touch rawer than what was to come, if less developed in the catchy melody department. A few months later, Green left the band for school. " We were just a garage band at the time," shrugs Ben. " We could have flopped. Who knew this would happen?! Some people can't afford the risk of being poor. But if you love it, you'll do anything for it." Enter Bryan Blur, who luckily sold sandwiches to a friend of the Kwellers. Ben invited him over. ''I'd just moved back to Rockwell from Austin,'' relates Bryan. ''My band had broken up and I was depressed." "I remember he couldn't stop smiling at our rehearsal,'' laughs Ben. ''Our previous bass player never smiled.'' The fact that Bryan was 13 years older than Ben (still is, in fact) never came into it. ''I'd have to have been a total f**king dumb-ass to say I didn't want to be in the band because of their age,'' he grins. '' They're both more mature than me, anyway!'' Shortly after Bryan leapt aboard, four major US labels began a bidding war for their signatures. Radish were flown to New York and LA, meeting celebrities like Madonna, Dr Dre, Axl Rose...''Axl Rose was a dickhead.'' laughs Ben. '' And LA seemed sleazy.'' ''It's a showbiz town,'' says Bryan. ''Showbusiness sucks!'' They subsequently signed to Mercury and recorded the 'Restraining Bolt' album. The song 'Today's Bargain' stirred up minor concern among the band's parents, featuring as it does the lines, 'I was robbing the store/ and I fell in love with a whore'. Our parents freaked out when they came up to the studio in Baltimore,'' smiles John. ''It was mainly because the song contained the word 'f**k'.'' Presumably, it isn't written from any personal experience? '' It's actually about misogyny,'' he reveals. ''People who beat women up. ''It's an anti-rape song. We just did a Greenville show in aid of a programme for battered women.'' Radish's other socio-political tune is 'Dear Aunt Arctica', which focuses on the nation-wide burning of predominantly Afro-American churches two summers back. The song was released in Texas on limited edition green vinyl. ''I don't really like songs that talk about the news,'' says Ben, '' but two churches actually burned Greenville. And nothing ever happens here!" "The Ku Klux Klan had a rally downtown in Greenville," says John. "Bryan and I drove up there to see what it was all about, and it was weird. It's kinda scary that people actually still subscribe to that shit.'' '' These Klan guys have all these answers figured out,'' scoffs Bryan. '' But they can't seem to brush their teeth or un-cross their eyes!" Minutes later, we're looking at the square where the Klan grouped to share their brain cell. Greenville is a ghost town this evening, and Ben decides that there's no point in going to Chauncey's as it will probably be: (a) boring, and (b) closed. As we head over to the house of a Radish -friend, the trio enthuse over their experiences in Europe this year. The Kerrang! Awards are singled out as a highlight which made them new friends like Placebo's leader Brian Molko. " People in England made you feel welcome," says Ben. " I was scared shitless about going over there- it's a whole different side of the world. Would they like us, or would we be lame?" Not even constant comparisons between Ben and Nirvana martyr Kurt Cobain could dampen Radish's enthusiasm. Much. " Everybody thinks Kurt Cobain's my hero," sighs Ben. " The more I here about it, the more I hate Kurt Cobain! He was a lonely person, and he didn't seem as much an artist as someone like Tori Amos or Trent Reznor. The Nirvana comparisons were the main reason I cut my hair," he admits. " That's so lame! If I wanted to wear a cardigan or something, people would say, 'Oh, your trying to be like Cobain'." As we stop to take pictures in a derelict car park, it's clear that Radish are best mates. They're constantly laughing, hugging, wrestling, enjoying what they do. Further conversation reveals that they've made a 20-minute movie on Super-8 film called 'Murder Is Not Funny', and they aren't exactly angelic when it comes to drugs. " Have fun while you can," smiles Ben. " If it's there, do it." Then he reconsiders. " Oh I don't want to sound all baaad," he grins, " That's terrible." " When I was growing up, I did every drug there is," admits Bryan. " They're just boring and stupid. I've done acid a million times. Smoked heroin, opium..." " I smoked opium." adds Ben, somewhat gobsmakingly. " I can't do acid anymore and pot makes me feel like I can't talk to people close up. But coke's really just too expensive. I wouldn't buy it! Drugs are a waste of money." While Bryan and John have girlfriends, Ben just finished with his romantic interest of two years. " We're still friends," he says. " It's just hard to have a serious relationship when your on the road. My phone bill was $1,300 dollars when I was in London, man! Calling her, and this girl in Canada...all kinds of shit was going down. I think girls suck right now!" Then Ben Kweller is yanking himself halfway out of this moving car's window. Not to evade further questioning, but to greet his mates with a roar of "Hey, motherf**kers!" Radish's young friend Echo lives at a water purification plant, run by her parents. The local rock kids (Pantera shirts, shorts, talk a bit like Beavis) hang out here to play basket ball, have the odd spliff and a laugh. Immediately, Radish merge in, becoming just another three kids running around with a ball and play-fighting. The only difference is, these three kids are flying to Paris tomorrow. As the sun sets, Ben climbs on a tree swing and forces himself high into the air. The tree bough bends frighteningly low. " Oh, he's gonna fall off that swing and die," drawls one young lad. " That'd suck." Indeed it would. But Ben Kweller his having too much fun to take a stupid fall.

THE KERRANG! CHALLENGE -September 1997

NAME: Ben Kweller, Bryan Blur and John Kent

OCCUPATION: Collectivly, Radish

SPECIALIST SUBJECT: Little Pink Stars

1/ Who plays the serial killer in 'Seven'?

Ben: " Oh...I love that movie!" Bryan: " Brad Pitt's the cop. Is it Boris Karloff ?" Ben: " He's dead,dude." Bryan: " Is Lon Chaney alive?...." Kerrang!: Enough!

2/ Name the drummer in Rage Against The Machine.

Ben: " F**k we should know this." Bryan: " Isn't it Rick Allen?"

3/ Name the youngest daughter in 'The Simpsons?'

Ben and Bryan: " Maggie." Bryan: " That show is the most accurate portrayal America." Ben: " It's so dark, in many ways. There's so many small things that you don't notice at first."

4/ Name the two brothers in Oasis.

Bryan: " Noel and Liam." Ben: " Gallagher - isn't that their last name? Oasis are bigger than Jesus. They're okay, but I think if Blur and Oasis fought, Blur would kick their ass." Bryan: " Physically."

5/ Where on the human body would you find a tragus?

Bryan: " In your throat. Oh no, wait a minute, spell it again? I thought you said trachea!" Ben: " Your tragus is in the shit-chute, right?" Kerrang!: Amusing, but it's in the ear. Bryan: " Well, ours are probably broken."

6/ What's the largest Greek island?

Ben: '' I didn't pay any attention in geography class. F**k. Athenia?" Bryan: " Isn't it Mega City?" Kerrang!: It's Crete. Ben ( singing Radiohead style): " Cos I'm a Crete...."

7/ Name the two stars of 'Men In Black'.

John: " Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith. We haven't seen it yet, but we've seen the Will Smith video. They play it all the time."

8/The male prostrate gland is the size of (a) a pea, (b) a walnut, or (c) an orange?

Bryan: "(d), varies! Old men get prostate inflammation! But it's normally..." Ben: " (a)." Kerrang!: Nope. You clearly have deflamed glands. Ben: " Well we know all the big words-we just don't know how to apply them."

9/ Who plays Michael Douglas' wife in 'Fatal Attraction'? Bryan: " Oh, f**k, the wife! What's her name, man? Shit."

10/ Name the lead singer in Korn. Bryan: " That's Jonathan, er...Jonathan?" Kerrang!: And the surname? Bryan: " What's the f**kers name? Jonathan Davis! We did Lollapalooza with them, so we got to see them and watch the kids tear up the seats."

11/ Spell 'cataclysm'.

Bryan: " C-A-T-A-C-L-Y-S-M." Ben: " Yeahhh!" Bryan: " Was that a cataclysmic climax?"

12/ Name the keyboard player in Bon Jovi. Bryan: " Alec Jon Such. No, that's the bass player. Damn!" Ben: " Robi Rocket! Or Robbi Wilde, with an 'e' on the end."

13/ How many 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' films have been made?

Bryan: " There's at least three. We'll say three." Kerrang!: Four. Bryan:" Damn! We're from Texas, too! The first movie's the only one worth bothering with."

14/ Name the Nirvana live album.

Ben: " From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishka'" Bryan: " It's not bad. I've got a ton of Nirvana bootlegs." Ben: " I liked the liner notes that Krist ( Novoselic) wrote."

15/ What kind of transport is an ACV?

Ben: " Auto Compound...a mobile of some sort. Gets you from A to B, I guess." Bryan:" It's one of those remote control cars they have on Mars?"

16/ From which leaf is cocaine derived?

Bryan: " The poppy." Ben: " Whattt?" Bryan: " No the coca leaf."

17/ If a dog barks and a cow moos, which creature is said to gibber?

Ben: " Humans." Bryan:" Is it geese or something? Gibbering idiots?" Ben: " Mice." 18/ What type of fruit is a morello? Bryan: " A banana."

19/ The new Green Day album is called (a) 'Sold Out'. (b) 'Nimrod', or (c) 'Suck It'?

Bryan: " I think it's 'Nimrod." Ben:" Yeah." Bryan: " I like ' Suck It', though. I was torn between the two."

20/What was Sepultura's last studio album called?

Bryan: " We Wish We Were Slayer'!?" Ben: I don't know. Don't listen to much metal. I like Prong, though."

21/ There is a Stephen King novel called 'Desperation': true or false?

Bryan: " True" Ben: " I like reading Anne Rice. Right Now I'm reading ' Memnoch The Devil." Bryan: " Well I like the TV guide..."

22/ Pantera's 'Cowboys From Hell' album was released in 1988, 1990 or 1992?

Ben: " '92. No, it was one of the first." Bryan:"I think it was '88." Ben: " No way." Bryan: " I feel very strongly about that! It's '88 bro." Ben: " Let's go in between and say '90."

23/ Which one word has both of the following meanings: ' A preliminary sketch' and ' To conscript for military service'?

Ben: " A prelmininary sketch is a treatment..." Bryan:" Enlist..." Ben:" A rough draft..." Bryan:"Draft!"

24/ A man is found hanging in an empty room. Beneth him is a pool of water. How did he kill himself?

Bryan: " He got on top of the block of ice. Ha! I'm the wise one. That's why they got an old guy in the band - they new this quiz was coming!"

25/ Which of the following is not a David Lynch movie: 'Blue Velvet', ' Lost Highway', 'Rubberhead' and 'Dune'?

Bryan: " 'Rubberhead'. 'Eraserhead' is the hardest f**kin' movie to watch. I've tried, about three times, and I can't do it."

HOW RADISH SCORED

13 OUT OF 25

THE VERDICT

After a slow first half, the young ( and not so young, in Bryan's case) Texans improved greatly, almost belying the fact that they're a vegetable.

E-mail:

This Page is hosted by Geocities Get your own Free Home Page