Chosen by Monk
These Texas slackers are turning the heat up to #108 with this latest slice of bluesy, psychedelic post-grunge garage rock ‘n’ roll:
Co-vocalists and guitarists Carrie Clark and Pam Peltz talked us through the song’s rather heated (sic) back story…
Pam: ‘108’ is like 1980s Austin, downtown around 6th St. and Lamar, when there were abandoned car dealerships and weeds growing everywhere and driveways to nowhere. I would be walking around in the extreme heat, almost so hot I couldn’t see. But loving it, cuz I kind of love the Texas heat, which I know is wrong.
Carrie: One of the things that I love about the Texas heat is that it feels purifying. It burns your soul clean. It’s almost like you’re going through this baptism of heat to really feel like you’re at home in Austin. You get the baptism of cold in Barton Springs, but the rest of the time, walking down the street, it’s a baptism of heat.
Pam: Is that redemption?
Carrie: Absolutely. It burns all of the evil out of your body and you’re just like this pure light soul.
Pam: Something tells me the Butthole Surfers knew that too.
Carrie: I was just thinking about them too. There’s something about unbearable heat and Butthole Surfers that go together. I don’t think you would get the early Austin music scene, punk rock scene anyway, without that burning heat.
Pam: Like everything that transpired on the scene was somehow an unavoidable development of the heat.
Carrie: And the difference between the Austin rock scene, whether it’s punk or just regular rock, versus New York City or any other big place is that you cannot wear a leather jacket in Austin in the summer.
Pam: That’s why I wear shorts all the time. Some people say, “Hey, I like that style.” And that is sweet for them to say, but also, I live in Texas in the summer.
Carrie: It’s practical. There’s something funny about the Texas heat being endearing. It separates the men from the boys.
Pam: And by men, we mean humans. Do you remember in the ’80s, actually living in houses that had no air conditioning?
Carrie: Absolutely. I lived in this great house in the Bouldin Creek neighborhood, three bedrooms, one bathroom, and one day it was so freaking hot that we went to go sit in the dog-friendly part of Barton Springs. And when we came home later, all of our candles, the tall skinny ones, had melted over sideways. If you have no air conditioning in Austin, you have to go find something to do between 4 and 7pm.
Pam: Texas has a certain depth.
Carrie: It’s hard to explain to people…