ALIVE & KICKING FEB, 2000

THE TROUBLEMAKERS - HAVE TROUBLE, WILL TRAVEL - by JONES
(An interview with Brian Machado)

If you don’t know who The Troublemakers are you should be ashamed of yourself. Now, I don’t have the space to give you the entire band history, and I’m sure that the band themselves could care less if you knew it or not, but I think it’s somewhat important to give you the short take.
The important thing here is that The Troublemakers have been around for a long time, and have been pretty much ignored by everything and everyone that claims to support rock and roll. Despite the lack of respect from the masses, The Troublemakers have continued to to live up to their name by putting on some of the most notorious live shows that most of Sacramento has never seen. Seriously, when it comes to rock and roll, these guys are the genuine article.
On first glance of their matching zebra striped vests and Chelsea boots you might mistake them as just another throwback 60’s garage band (which is still more interesting than anything else). But once they hit the stage - all bets are off. When The Troublemakers play - shit gets broken! Guitar strings, drum heads, mic stands, amplifiers, windows, tables, rafters, arms, legs, eardrums, if it stands still long enough, it’s going down! It’s as if these guys are possessed by everything that rock and roll was meant to be.
While it’s true that their music is inspired by the sounds of the sixties punk / garage bands like The Sonics, The Wailers, Shadows of Knight and The Seeds, through their hands it seems as if it was re-invented for right now! The music has a sense of urgency and discontent that demands attention. The playing is sloppy but it doesn’t matter. It’s real and it’s from the gut. And when you play it fast and loose there is always the chance that it may fall apart. That’s why those of us who have been enlightened by their performances try to never miss a gig. We never know what is going to happen.
Sometimes, they become a lumbering tangled mess, and it’s a glorious thing to behold. Songs will completely fall apart only to be reconstructed out of anger and confusion, and they will gain another dimension. Usually, Rodney, the guitar player, will be so drunk that it’s a wonder he can stand, let alone play. Brian the drummer (who is the only person that I would ever seriously compare to Keith Moon) will start screaming at him, telling him to shut up and tune his guitar, or he will simply refuse to start the next number. Tim, the singer, is an equal opprotunity put-down artist and will begin berating them both, while bassist Stan will wearily take a seat next to his amp, because he’s seen this all before and he could care less.
It’s not rare to see the band’s set turn into a fight, but they seem to beat each other up quickly and get back to the music. Arguments on stage are commonplace, and it’s an entertaining view of what a band normally goes through in private. You see, the band doesn’t practice on a regular basis. A couple of years ago Rodney moved to Milwaukee, so he usually flies into town the day of the show. If they’re lucky, they can fit in one quick rehersal before gig time. Lack of practice and the fact that the guys aren’t the closest of friends off stage is a perfect recipe for disaster, yet these guys make Murphy’s Law work to their advantage. They are fully aware that the great majority of truly inspiring performers go unnoticed, and they play for the simple reason - That it has to be done.
So when you are in a brilliant rock and roll band who are all but ignored in your own hometown, what can you do? Well, you can do what The Troublemakers did. They recorded their records themselves, sold them at shows and sent them to fanzines who had an appreciation for true rock and roll. Some of these zines were based in large American cities, but most of them were in Europe. Some of these people who wrote for the zines also worked in underground radio and they took a big liking to the Troublemakers and started playing them on their shows. Of course, the public starts going crazy and wants to know how they can buy these records, and before long the indie labels from all over Europe start calling on the Sacramento foursome.
Eventually, they signed with a label from Germany called Screaming Apple and released “The Great Lost Troublemakers Album”. The record is a low-fi masterpiece featuring blistering originals like “You make a better door (than a window)” and choice covers such as “Let’s go in ‘69”. I don’t believe that it ever got any radio play anywhere near Sacramento, but it was a huge success all over Europe, and within a few months of the album’s release, the head of their record label was begging them to do a European tour. The label was footing the bill, so the band decided to give it a shot and see what would happen.
About a month after their return to America, I set up an interview with drummer Brian Machado, and singer Tim Foster. Only Brian showed up, so here are the results of my interview of the Lone Troublemaker:

A&K: So, where did the tour begin, and did you guys all fly over together?

Brian: I flew with our roadie, Tim and Stan flew together, and Rodney flew by himself, because he lives in Milwaukee, and it was a true Troublemaker ordeal, because we met up in Paris, and the only thing that we needed to bring were our instruments and clothes, and of course, Rodney forgot to bring his guitar.

A&K: You’re kidding!?!

Brian: Nope, didn’t even cross his mind during the whole flight. We meet up and we’re like - “Where’s your guitar?” And he’s all - “Oops!” - So he had to have it FedEx’d overnight to Paris.

A&K: So you didn’t have to bring your drums or amplifiers?

Brian: No, the label took care of that. We just took guitars, and I brought my own cymbals, sticks, and my kick pedal. It was pretty cool.

A&K: How many shows did you play?

Brian: We were scheduled to play twelve, I think, but we played one or two more. I believe that we were supposed to be mostly playing Germany, but when we got there the promotor got us a gig in Paris.

A&K: How was that?

Brian: It was cool. It was on this huge boat on the Seine. I’d never played on a boat before, and as usual, things got out of hand. Rod broke his guitar, I broke the drums, and Tim jumped off the second story of this huge boat into the river. We later learned that the Seine is like the most polluted river in all of europe, so we all kept a close eye on Tim for the next few days. Waiting to see if he was going to start glowing or something.

A&K: Where where you guys staying? I mean, were you in hotels, peoples apartments, in a van?

Brian: You know, this is where the difference really is. We were treated like royalty. Most every night we were put up in five star hotels, each got our own rooms, and had these amazing chefs cooking us meals. It was amazing. It made me embarrassed about the way musicians are treated in the states. All I could do was apologise to the other bands we played with, telling them that if they went to America - it was gonna’ suck. It’s a shame that we don’t take care of bands the way they do. But anyways, yeah, most of the lodging was great, except for a time or two. Like right after the first gig in Paris - we had to get Rod’s guitar fixed which made us late, and we missed our connection in Frankfurt, Germany , and ended up staying in this miserable place that we dubbed “The Needle Inn” due to the fact that there were used syringes laying all over the floor, and we were the only people renting rooms who were not prostitutes. I’ll tell ya’, there are some scary places in Europe!

A&K: Any non-scary places that you enjoyed?

Brian: Oh yeah. I had a great time the whole tour and it was cool to get to travel and meet new people. We didn’t have a lot of time for sightseeing, but there were some really beautiful places. Like, and I don’t mean to sound morbid here, but Nurnburg, Germany, where Hitler gave all of his speeches - was amazing. All of those old buildings, still there, the architecture, the history, it was like Wow! Switzerland was beautiful, and almost everwhere we played, the clubs were really cool. At one gig in Austria the club was beneath the walls of a medieval town.

A&K: Tell me about what happened with the pancreas.

Brian: Okay. Tim has a problem with his pancreas, sometimes it just quits working, and if you know anything about the pancreas you know that it’s a very important organ. So after the gig in Feldkirch, Sonderbar Austria - his pancreas just bombs out. He can’t keep anything down, and it’s pretty scary. So we rush him to the Hospital and they check him in and they want to operate, but Tim’s like, “Fuck that! Just give me an iv and I’ll leave tommorrow.” But they refuse to let him leave. So we’re ready to cancel the rest of the tour, but Tim says “Hey, we made a committment, you guys get your asses out there and play the show.” So we went ahead and played, and actually did a great show. Rod and I took turns singing, which was pretty hysterical since I don’t even know most of the lyrics to the songs. I ended up singing Led Zeppelin and AC/DC lyrics to our music, but the crowd seemed to dig it anyway. When I told Tim about that he damn near jumped out of his hospital bed and strangled me. Anyways, the doctors said that he needed to stay in the hospital for at least six days, so the rest of us headed off for Stuttgart without him. We played another great set and we’re starting to feel like “Who needs singers?” Meanwhile, in the hospital, Tim is going crazy at the thought of me singing Led Zeppelin lyrics to our songs, so he tears out all of his iv tubes and monitors and sneaks out of the hospital. Still in his hospital gown, he boards a train to Stuttgart. He showed up the next morning and found us, and even though he was very ill he finished the rest of the tour.

A&K: That is quite possibly the greatest rock and roll story I’ve ever heard!

Brian: Yeah, it’s pretty funny now, but at the time I was worried as hell. He was listed as being in critical condition - It was a serious deal. But another funny thing is, when we took him to the hospital, the promoter of the gig was the guy who drove us, and Rodney didn’t come with us. He decided to stay at the hotel and relax or get drunk or something. So after we play the gig without Tim that night, the promoter comes up to us and in his broken english says to Stan, “I like you.” Then he turns to me and says “I like you.” Finally he comes to Rodney and says “You, I do not like!”

A&K: Ha! That’s rich. What was Rodney’s reaction?

Brian: He was stunned. He was like, “What did I do?” And the promoter said that he wasn’t a true friend because he didn’t go along to take Tim to the hospital, and Rodney just looked at the guy like he was out of his fucking mind and said “We’re NOT friends - We’re a BAND!”

A&K: How perfect! So how was the turnout for your shows?

Brian: It was great. Almost everywhere we played was packed, which was surprising because we aren’t really used to playing to so many people.

A&K: How many is “so many”?

Brian: The worst night was probably two hundred and the best was around twelve hundred.

A&K: And how was the reception?

Brian: It was awesome. They really love rock and roll. You know what’s weird, we hardly ever had an opening act. When we were going over we assumed that we would be opening for bands over there, or someone would be opening for us. But every show except two, we were the only band playing. Usually they would have a DJ playing cool sixties records and stuff, and then we would play after. And we also had only planned to do about a forty-five minute set, but we got encores every night and I don’t think we ever played less than an hour and a half.

A&K: What did you do, play the set twice?!?

Brian: No man, we’re The Troublemakers. We played eveything we knew and then we played stuff we kinda knew, then we played shit that none of us knew! Ha Ha! It was cool, nobody seemed to mind. The crowds were going crazy and they just wanted some loud rock and roll. Every night was a blast, even the ones where we weren’t at our best. You know how Tim is onstage - He’s a wild man, and they just ate it up. It wasn’t like it is here at home, you know, trying to get the audience all reved up. They were ready to go before we even started playing.

A&K: That makes it a lot more fun.

Brian: Sure. You know it’s different when the audience is there to see YOU, instead of just there to be there. Most of these folks knew who we were, and owned our records, and had read about us, and heard us on the radio. They were there to see us do it live because they liked the band.

A&K: Isn’t it cool to see five hundred people singing along to the lyrics?

Brian: It’s amazingly cool! It was blowing our minds. We were selling merch like crazy, and people were wanting our autographs, and all the encores and screaming and.... It was like this incredible rock star dream. I mean, people from half way across the world knew who we were - knew our names - knew our songs - knew everything. Check this out - Some guy in Munich knew that we were from Sacramento and asked us if we knew the guys in Magnolia Thunderfinger.

A&K: Did you try and deny it?

Brian: Of course! Ha ha!

A&K: You seem surprised that people knew who you were, but didn’t your record label tell you that. And isn’t that why you went in the first place?

Brian: Well yeah, but you know how it is. I figured that maybe a handfull of people knew who we were. I didn’t expect to go from Paris to Zurich to Austria... Germany, you know, all over, and play to packed houses. It was a pleasant surprise.

A&K: So now that you’re home what’s the plan for The Troublemakers?

Brian: Well, with The Troublemakers, you never know. I can only speak for myself, but I thought the tour was great. Tim told me that when he got home his answering machine was filled with messages from the label and the promoter, wanting us to make plans to come back. They said we had been one of the best received bands they’d had in a long time, so the offer is there to go back. But you never know. I mean, Rodney lives two thousand miles away from the rest of us, My wife is pregnant right now, who knows what will happen. Ultimately, it’s up to Tim, and whenever he decides what is next, the rest of us will have to decide if we can do it or not. You know, we don’t operate like a normal band. Last time Rodney came to town, we got together and wrote, learned and recorded another album in the space of one day.

A&K: And I’ll bet that it’s every bit as great as the last record!

Brian: I haven’t heard it.

A&K: YOU HAVEN’T HEARD YOUR OWN RECORD!?!

Brian: I don’t need to. It’s The Troublemakers!