'KUNG FU' and BULLFIGHTING

Orange Country veterans, the Vandals, jumped onto the punk scene before punk was cool and before it offered musicians a steady paycheck. As the first band signed to Bad Religion's Epitaph Records, the Vandals released a debut EP, Peace Thru Vandalism, in 1982, and later caught the eye of "X-Files" creator Chris Carter, landing spots in an episode entitled "D.P.O." Having released their twelfth album (of fifteen total albums, including live recordings), Hollywood Potato Chip, this June, the boys of the Vandals are currently on tour and will perform in Indianapolis during the Vans Warped Tour as a main stage headliner.\nWith a raunchy sense of humor and a down-to-earth sensibility, the Vandals' most recent line-up, holding strong since 1989, includes an oil painter and extra member of Tenacious D (guitarist Warren Fitzgerald), an ex-Fallen Idols singer (vocalist Dave Quackenbush), a studio musician and member of A Perfect Circle (drummer Josh Freese) and a genuine bullfighter and filmmaker, with whom the Weekend was able to interview via the telephone this past week, bassist Joe Escalante. \nQ: Why did punk rock appeal to you musically, and why do you choose to perform that genre over others?\nJE: "It seemed like anyone could be in a punk band. I saw the Ramones play in Huntington Beach (Calif.), and a bunch of high school kids in a band called the Crowd opened up for them and got to hang out with them backstage. I thought, "I'd like to do that!"\nQ. Did you have any formal musical training while growing up? \nJE: I had several years of violin and trumpet lessons. That was in junior high.\nQ. Are you glad that you switched from drums to bass after the band's original line-up?\nJE: Yes. Then we got Josh Freese, who's the best drummer in the world!\nQ. What was it like forming a punk band in the early '80s with so many pop bands like Bananarama playing the airwaves?\nJE: You definitely made a conscious decision not to make any money ever. Kids nowadays are getting rich off of it.\nQ. What are you hoping to accomplish with your most recent album, Hollywood Potato Chip, and how are fans reacting to it so far?\nJE: It got some good reviews and some bad ones. We're trying to let people know we can still make a good record.\nQ. Which songs off the new album do you perform live? \nJE: We play three songs from the recent album on the Warped Tour: "My Neck, My Back," "Don't Stop Me Now" and "Be a Good Robot."\nQ. Have you shot the video for the album's first single, "Don't Stop Me Now," which is a cover of the Queen classic, yet? Where'd the concept for the video come from?\nJE: Yes. If you go to Hollywood outside the Chinese Theater, there are fake celebrities that try to get people to have their picture taken with them for money. There's a toothless Spiderman, an ugly Marilyn Monroe, Shrek and some others. So (for the video), Warren poses as Freddie Mercury and goes out having photos taken of him with people and singing.\nQ. How is your "talent contest" (TITS: Totally International Talent Search) coming along? (Amateur singers send in a video of themselves covering a new song from Hollywood Potato Chip. The best submissions will be posted on the Kung Fu Web site, and the winner will receive a golden microphone and an autographed guitar, according to www.vandals.com). Have you seen any of the entrants' videos yet?\nJE: Yeah. There are some pretty good ones. They're all funny to us.\nQ. How did you like co-hosting "Loveline" with Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew recently?\nJE: That was our forth time. The calls are always the same. Dr. Drew is really smart, and Adam Carolla is one of the funniest guys out there. It's an honor to work with them.\nQ. You guys are originally from Huntington Beach, Calif. How has your lifestyle changed after recording so many albums and doing countless tours? \nJE: When we first started out, we traveled in a van and played in front of nobody. Now we travel in a bus and play in front of tons of people.\nQ. Who are some of the other Warped Tour bands that you believe rock?\nJE: New Found Glory and Alkaline Trio are my favorites.\nQ. Tell me one of the worst habits of your bandmates?\nJE: John's a very good drummer. He's like a machine, but like most drummers, he sweats a lot so there are sweaty shirts all over the bus. Warren spills mustard on his shirt almost every day, and Dave — he's pretty clean.\nQ. I noticed that Warren has a link on your Web site to his (graphically vulgar and humorous) canvas oil paintings. What do you think of his paintings, and how does he feel about the movies that you make? \nJE: I think he should go to art school. … I created a movie, Cake Boy, that he wrote, so he'd better like it! It's about a roadie who gets abused by his girlfriend and then gets abused even worse by the band. Then he falls in love with an electric wheelchair. The film should be out soon.\nQ. I read that you are a bullfighter. How often have you traveled to Mexico and participated in bullfights? How does someone get the opportunity to do that? Have you ever been seriously injured as a result of a fight? \nJE: There's a school at www.bullfightschool.com. That's how I found out about it. I go to Mexico once a month. To actually kill a bull is a big deal ... I've killed many bulls. I'll go to my next bull fight in September in Tijuana. I get injured every time, but not very seriously.\nQ. How do you like running Kung Fu Records with Warren? \nJE: Actually, Warren stays at home, and I run it. It's a big job. I'm there every day.\nQ. Is Dave Quackenbush really a Pre-paid Legal Services Associate, as your Web site indicates? \nJE: No. There's a guy with the same name on the 'Net, and Dave wanted his own Web site like the rest of us, so we put that guy's on there.\nQ. If some kid on the street came up to you and said "punk rock's dead," what would you do to him/her?\nJE: I'd say, "You're right, little kid," and buy him an ice cream.\nQ. Is there anything else you'd like to add?\nJE: We still have a dating service on our Web site from our last album for people to surf and date each other (http://internetdatingsuperstuds.com).\nThe Vandals will perform on Thursday, July 22 during the Vans Warped Tour at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Indianapolis. To stretch your punker wings, visit www.vandals.com or http://kungfurecords.com.