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December
2003
SIX DEGREES OF THE STUNTCOCKS
By Mike Doktorski
Back in the mid-nineties, it was a common saying that New Brunswick
had more bands than musicians… in those days it seemed like
everyone had two or three 'side projects' going. Perhaps no band
epitomized this trend more than The Stuntcocks. Formed in 1996,
the act welcomed a countless array of guests and temporary members
over the years and in the process assumed near-legendary status
among Hub City scenesters, hipsters, and hangers-on. Earlier this
year, the Stuntcocks' current lineup released their first-ever
CD, a thirteen-track deep collection of punk-leaning, hook-filled
ruminations on the slacker lifestyle. In a recent interview with
Night and Day, singer, guitarist and founding member Johnny
Stuntcock (aka ex-Urchins guitarist Albie Connelly) graciously
took the time to share his thoughts on the band's past, present,
and future.
N&D: How did the Stuntcocks form?
JS: We formed in the basement of original bass player J.J. (Jesse
Rudner, now of Sparks Fly from a Kiss) Stuntcock's apartment on
Hamilton Street in New Brunswick. I had to duck my head while
I played and sang because the beams of the basement ceiling were
so low. I actually made up the name a while before the band formed,
but nobody that was willing to play with me in a band would do
it under that name. Later on, I knew I had I met the right guys
for the project because they loved it, and the Stuntcocks were
born. J.J. Stuntcock, Joey Stuntcock (the original drummer), and
I clicked right away, and we started writing the songs we had
in our heads that didn't fit into our "real" bands.
It was a side project for all of us, but as each of our bands
broke up, the Stuntcocks became our main project. It went from
a three-piece to a four-piece after a few practices, when I ran
into Bobby Stuntcock (who was then fronting a great band called
Black Belt Jones) at a party on Joey's Livingston Ave. rooftop.
I pitched the project to Bobby and told him it was called "the
Stuntcocks." He said, "that's a great name," and
was co-fronting the band with me by the end of the next week or
so. In the early days, we would practice in each other's basements
around town---mostly J.J.'s next apartment on Louis Street and
Joey Stuntcock's place on Livingston Ave. No matter where it was,
the cops would usually come and break it up. We actually recorded
the bass and drum tracks for our 7-inch single and 10-song tape
in Joey's basement. We would keep recording until the cops started
knocking, and then we'd go out to the bars.
N&D: Where was the Stuntcocks' first gig?
JS: We played first without a drummer---or was it without a bass
player?---at the open mike at Café News on Easton Ave.
Bobby lived right next door, and as veteran NB scenesters will
remember, they ran a pretty cool open mike night. Bands like ProSolar
Mechanics and Bionic Rhoda would try out new material there on
acoustic guitars and stripped down drums in the small hipster
setting. Three out of the four of the 'cocks were drinking heavily
at Bobby's place and decided to go down and get a spot. We played
one original and two or three covers, and we sucked pretty bad.
I don't remember when our first full-on show was, but I think
it was either at the Melody, the Plum Street Pub, or the Budapest.
We played those venues and the Court Tavern a lot in those days---it
was a time when you could play four or five shows a month, sharing
bills with great bands in packed clubs and basement parties, without
even leaving New Brunswick.
N&D: How did it go?
JS: We attracted a lot of people from other bands to our first
shows. They got it right away, though I have a feeling a lot of
them thought those early shows were more of a joke than we meant
them to be….But a packed house is a packed house, and we
had a pretty good standing in the New Brunswick scene almost from
the start. Some of our favorite NB bands even started covering
our songs in their live sets; Bionic Rhoda would play "Basement"
or "She Gets all Her Pets High" (which they recently
recorded) and Boss Jim Gettys played "The Pact" as part
of one of their infamous rock medleys.
N&D:
Describe the various lineup changes over the years--who left,
who joined, etc?
JS: It started out with me, Bobby, J.J., and Joey, we were the
founding members. After a year or two with the original lineup,
I forget the exact dates, Joey and J.J. started fighting and Joey
left. We played with a few different drummers after that, all
on loan from other local bands. Among them was Brian Stoor (Milwaukees),
Tommy Bendel (Bionic Rhoda, Nipple, Like Moving Insects, etc.),
and John Swayne (New Blood Revival). Then Bobby took a teaching
job in Warsaw, Poland, leaving J.J. and I missing both a co-frontman
and a roommate, as the three of us lived together on Oxford Street.
Then when Ralph Nicastro (Aviso' Hara, Sparks Fly from a Kiss)
moved in, both problems were solved. His name became Kinicki Stuntcock.
And about the time he started playing with us, Chris Pierce (Doc
Hopper, Sinkhole) started playing drums for us on a steady basis
as Little Jimmy Stuntcock. They were great times, though we tended
to be a pretty ill-rehearsed and drunken lot when it came to how
we actually sounded onstage. We still played a bunch of shows,
but the songwriting and practicing parts of being a band were
fairly well ignored. Everyone was so busy with their work and
their bands and their girlfriends that we only ended up getting
together to play shows, with the resulting performances getting
more and more out of control, and the Stuntcock train eventually
came to a grinding mid-station stop by the end of 1999. Then Bobby
moved back to America in the Spring of 2000, and we decided to
start playing together in a psudo-Stuntcocks-type project. We
asked ex-Boss Jim Gettys drummer Iggy Stuntcock, coming off of
recent stints in Mars Needs Women and Nudeswirl, if he was available
and (to our amazement) he was willing to join up with us. We played
a few practices with Brett Neilly (bassist for New Blood Revival),
but he told us from the start he could only play on a temporary
basis. So Iggy brought in Ziggy Stuntcock (ex-Negative Male Child
guitarist) on bass to solidify current lineup. Early on in this
project, we realized there was no really other direction we could
go, and that this new lineup was the Stuntcocks, risen from the
ashtray. That was about April or May of 2000 and we have been
going stronger and stronger ever since. The CD we released in
February 2003 was the first release from the Stuntcocks since
our split 7-inch with Boss Jim Gettys in 1997. That's a pretty
long lag, but---to borrow someone else's material---the rumors
of our death were greatly exaggerated.
N&D: What was your favorite show ever?
JS: It will be hard to beat We Fest 2003 (in Wilmington, NC) this
past May, those kids were really into it. But there have been
so many great shows, it would be hard to say. One of our recent
Maxwell's shows---November of last year---sold out with a whole
room full of people rocking out to the Stuntcock rock, and that
was pretty great feeling. But then there were those shows back
in the day at the Melody, the Budapest, the Court, Plum Street
Pub….I guess "favorite gig" is a hard thing to
quantify.
N&D:
What is your favorite Stuntcocks song to play live?
JS: They're all fun to play, but I guess we all have our favorites.
I've always liked the old-catalog standards "She Gets All
Her Pets High" and "Punk Rock Guy," but I'd say,
right now, my favorite is "Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder."
It's fun to sing and my guitar parts are fun to play, too. Yeah,
I like that one---but ask me in a month or two and I'll probably
have a different answer.
N&D: Will the 'cocks record another album?
JS: That's the plan. We have a few songs written for it already,
and we're probably going to start playing with them in the studio
soon. I think the next CD is going to be a lot tighter than this
last one. We have really muscled up in general as a band in the
past year, both in our songwriting and our performances.
N&D: So what's next for the Stuntcocks?
JS: Check out our website (www.stuntcocks.com) for upcoming shows,
MP3s, and soon we'll have our new video on there, too. Our talented
and now award-winning filmmaker friend John Hulme and his crew
shot footage of us at Maxwell's, the Court Tavern, the Somerset
Inn, and at We Fest, and he and Rich Bochkay (from Billy, who
also played at WE Fest) edited a great video for "Pre-Traumatic
Stress Disorder." So keep an eye out for that, visit the
website, come out to a show, buy a CD, a T-shirt, get some stickers
and buttons….don't fight it---if you're not a Stuntcocks
fan, you're not thinking about it hard enough! §
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