rockyourlyricsRYL: Tell us more about “Crashing Diseases and Incurable Airplanes” your debut album, it obtained a huge success! Why have you selected this title
USA out of Vietnam: We are like little brats and like to confuse people. Hopefully the title reflects that. It’s like a word play puzzle. Can you figure it out? Bet ya can’t!
As far as our huge success goes we try and just stay grounded and put our pants on one leg at a time, that and invest in the real estate market. I understand you are in Europe. We just invested some capitol in a summer getaway place called Chernobyl. Have you heard of it?
We figured that rock and roll can only last for so long and will need a place to put our feet up when this whole thing hits the shitter. Besides, Martha’s Vineyard is boring the tits off of us.
RYL: Is there something that ties all the songs of the album? A common theme?
USA out of Vietnam: Yes, the common theme is astral projection and nachos
RYL: Tell us everything about the song “Archangel”….which of its verses you like the most?
USA out of Vietnam: I like it when the robot talks in it. The lyrics were fed into a robot, which utilized the Byron Gysin/William S. Burroughs cut up technique.
This also could’ve been due to faulty batteries in the robot but the Gysin/Burroghs thing sounds a lot better in interviews. “Archangel” was very much influenced by the greatest rap song of all time – “Roll The Bones” by Rush.
It sounds like one of our favourite lyricists, Ayn Rand, oops I mean Neil Peart was also using the Gysin/Burroughs cut up method as well on his jam.
You know, when the robot raps in that Rush song? Yep, totally stole it. Once again Peart caught a crystal clear glimpse of the future and saw how hip hop will sound in the year 2112.
What a genius. Now that I think about it, we kind of used the Gysin/ Burroughs AND Peart technique.
Did you know in the Rush song “Trees” Peart wasn’t talking about trees at all but in fact the government. It’s true, look it up.
RYL: how do you, usually, write the lyrics of your songs?
USA out of Vietnam: I keep a journal next to my bedside and write down my dreams as soon as I awaken.
Oddly enough, after five nights of sleep all of the lyrics ended up being about astral projection and nachos.
Fuggit, nobody else in the band had any better ideas. I have since seen a doctor and it ended up I was suffering from nocturnal gastrolitis. I have since taken industrial strength antacids and things seem a bit more back on track now.
I have continued recording my dreams in a journal and the themes for the next record is shaping up to being about having sex with people I went to high school with and giving speeches in front of my old geography class mates while trying to hide a boner.
Kind of a return to more innocent times.
RYL: Tell us the meaning behind the song “Asphodell/1322”?
USA out of Vietnam: Asphodel is a flower that has flourished in times before Christ.
When hung to dry under direct moonlight and later ingested it can create feelings of flight and ascension. 1322 is the name of a plate of nachos that is served at a local sports bar named Burpys here in Rochester, N.Y.
RYL: Do you remember the day you wrote “Leg of Lamb”?
USA out of Vietnam: Yes, I was having a fitful sleep and then I woke up hungry for nachos with an odd smell emanating from under my blankets.
The song was originally called “Killing Me Softly With Nachos” but then the wet blankets in my band started whining about every song being about nachos and wanted more songs that sounded like hip hop made in the future.
RYL: Which is the weirdest musical instrument you ever played?
USA out of Vietnam: Guitar. What the hell is that thing about? Press your fingers down on metal wires while bashing away at the other end?
Hahaha, it makes my friends in the band laugh though, so I can’t complain. Whatever makes them smile I guess.
For whatever reason though they don’t let me plug it in to amplifier.
RYL: Everyone seems to like “You are a comet, You are on fire”, do you remember writing it?
USA out of Vietnam: Yes, if we ever had a hit song that would definitely be it. It was our guitarist Fogman that came up with the whole concept behind it.
Obviously it is an ode (some would say a direct lift) to his all time favorite band – The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Hopefully they are playing the Vans Warped Tour as well. Fogman will shit a brick (not because he has weak bladder issues but because he really likes the band…..
Ok, and also because he has weak bladder issues).
U.S. TOUR DATES 2015
1/22 Allston, MA @ Great Scott
1/23 Providence, RI @ Columbus Theater
1/24 Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade NYC
1/25 Philadelphia, PA @ Black Box
1/26 New Haven, CT @ Café Nine
1/27 Winooski, VT @ Monkey House
More info: https://www.facebook.com/usaoutofvietnam
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