Today we’re bringing you a full stream of the new, self-titled EP from Las Vegas lo-fi indie punk band Moonboots. The album will be available Saturday, March 5, at the band’s release show at the Bunkhouse. If you can’t make the show, you can still purchase the EP digitally via Bandcamp. (Update: you’ll also be able to buy the album in person at the band’s Neon Reverb show, March 11 at The Bunkhouse Saloon). Want to know more about Moonboots? Check out our interview with drummer Ryan Brunty.
Moonboots has a bit of an unconventional origin, starting out as a cover band before moving onto original music. How did the current incarnation of the band come together?
[Moonboots] started as a Pixies cover band like three years ago. [John] Coulter [vox] had been in bands in college playing country music covers and he came to a show I played at Gold Mine Tavern with Last Action Hero and asked if I wanted to start a band. Coulter is one of my favorite people on the planet so I said “yes.”
We placed some Craigslist ads looking for more members and found some real characters. We learned like 40 Pixies songs over the course of a few years with varying members. Then one day I was being interviewed for art stuff on a late night talk show that ironically enough turned out to be a Conservative Christian Radio show. I mentioned that I was in a Pixies cover band and that we were hoping to start playing around but needed a guitar player because the last guy went to prison for CPS or something and when I left the sound booth, the sound guy mentioned he knew my brother and was a huge Pixies fan and happened to play guitar; that was Clyde [Barnett] and we’ve been Moonbros ever since.
We kept playing with Bartlett on bass but he was having trouble learning the parts so we replaced him with Clyde’s best friend Andrew who crafted some of our first songs and added Wade [Schuster] on guitar from a Craigslist ad. We always joke that Wade could have been a serial killer but ended up being the best Craigslist find ever. Andrew had always wanted to be a fill-in because he was more of a guitar player so he decided to leave and PJ [Perez] approached us after seeing our set and really dug the sound and became our bassist/manager/pr person/work horse.
The rest is history. We started playing exclusively originals after Pixies songs started sounding the same and premiered our set at a Drink n Draw at Triple B’s. We played there a few times and then started opening for bigger bands at Bunkhouse and Beauty Bar like The Donkeys and Part Time and Album Leaf.
What was it like going into the studio for this EP? Who did you record with?
Ron [Corso] invited us to record [our first single] “The Omen” at 11th Street, to test out his gear over there. It was such a blast seeing the drums record to analog. I’ve dreamed about seeing tape spin since I was a kid. I was in love with that experience. We recorded the other tracks at Naked City with John [Kiehlbauch], and [Mike] Lavin mastered the whole record. We’re pretty stoked with how it ended up and it was cool having multiple studios and engineers; each song has a memory attached.
So you guys came together over a love of The Pixies, but what other bands influenced your songwriting on this EP?
I think that differs per member. For me personally it’s Brand New, Basement, Citizen, The Cure, Circa Survive; anything with solid drumming and deeply connective lyrics.
For the band, we are influenced by Pavement, Built to Spill, Guided by Voices, anything 90s alternative really.
You guys have a lot of artistic projects outside of music, such as your Yermin art and PJ’s comic books. How do those pursuits influence the way your band operates?
I think we’re lucky as a band because we all have our outside artistic endeavors that drive us. Coulter is an art director for Vegas.com, so his eye is amazing for flyers and graphics. PJ is so integrated into the scene with his publishing company and comics and knows just about everyone, so it’s always cool to see how his mind is churning for promotion because he’s a genius with that stuff. Wade is an art teacher at a high school in town and the Vegas scene right now is very house party, high school-driven which is exciting because that’s how it was when I was coming up in the scene. And I have my clothing line Depressed Monsters. It’s all just really exciting.
Moonboots will be available to purchase in person Saturday night at the Bunkhouse. What can people expect from this gig?
I’m stoked because we’re playing with our friends and it’s going to be such a fun night of music. O Wildly, Astaires and American Weather; that’s like our dream lineup. So fun.
Update: Moonboots will be playing Neon Reverb, which takes place March 10-13 in Downtown Las Vegas. Details and ticket info can be found on http://www.neonreverb.com/
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