Last month, the Live Buzz had the pleasure of sitting down with Rod Tuffcurls and the Bench Press: a high energy collection of cover band moguls. They'll be playing the Bluebird this Friday and Saturday in a back-to-back feature. Here is the much anticipated Part 2 of our interview:
LB: Now you guys never tour the south--you get Ohio, Indiana, Illinois?
T&BP: We've done gigs in Michigan, Minneapolis, Kentucky...
Corporate gig for Zappos. But we haven't been any further south yet.
We could do Austin but I think Austin's original music. They probably wouldn't want to cover us.
LB: Hit Dallas. We'd love to have you.
T&BP: I didn't think there was anything downtown Dallas when I went there. For the downtown area, you have to go a little outside it.
A friend of mine got shot there.
Next question!
LB: So playing venues like this, and corporate gigs, and weddings; it's alot of genre hopping. Does that ever get difficult for you guys?
T&BP: That's the most fun.
We have a huge repertoire ouvrir, if you will.
Going from Under the Sea into Closer was one of my favorites.
LB: So what kind of musical background do we have then?
T&BP: He (Dick Celebrity) has a Master's in jazz drumming.
I'll be taking a jazz solo tonight so you'll definitely want to record that.
I (Uncle Sex) have a Bachelor's Degree in Classical Guitar Performance--
Boring.
--which you're really not going to pick up on.
My (Dick Celebrity) maitch was very supportive! Watched me practice for four hours a day. My maitch used to say "Dick Celebrity's hands here were like wet noodles! "Remember the technique. And I'd say 'thanks my maitch. You're really the best.' Actually not the best.
Y'know I (Tuffcurls) actually have a background in theater so I'm just pretending to do everything up on stage.
But he's a great singer. His mother was a vocal singer.
(Loud, repeated banging from Rod Tuffcurls)
Just a natural born singer.
But no one in my family can really sing.
Here's the funny thing though: not a natural birth!
Weren't you a C Section?
No but I was supposed to--
YOU WERE A GODDAM C SECTION!
Actually I was turned around last second. I was breaching for the last couple days, and then at the end I was like, psych.
Meowww...
Would you write that Dick Celebrity threw my water across the room?
LB: I'll make some notes here. Now I'm supposed to ask you about your creative process.
T&BP: If there's a song that everyone likes, we'll play it.
We can't be too creative except in arranging stuff. We don't have a piano or strings.
LB: Who does the arranging?
T&BP: Rod's really good at that.
Oh c'mon! We're giving him the credit for that?
Well he does all of my arranging.
We've given him credit! Can we just move on?
Let's just make it an expose on the autism spectrum!
When we do new stuff we try to do as weird of stuff as we can. We added this labryinth song, which kinda sorta works.
We just try to do weirder and weirder stuff to see if it will work. And we can always get away with it here. We can get away with anything here.
NB: Now why is it "Rod Tuffcurls and the Bench Press?" How did you get stuck being the Bench Press?
There was a story about that!
It should be "Dicky Dick and the Dick Box."
He's not the lead singer, that's to be sure.
I'm not the lead singer?
LB: Evidently there was a story?
Yes! When we started, everything was such a joke--
(Loud, repeated clapping)
--and we didn't know what was going to happen.
We'd have the band names, so there was Rod Tuffcurls and the Bench Press, Comeback Cupid and the Devil Dicks, Uncle Sex and the Tuff Daddies, and Dick Dick dick-ta dick dick dick.
I feel like Rod and I (Uncle Sex) had a pretty even amount of songs. CC didn't sing as much as he does now, and now we kinda sing about equally. But I'm not really the lead singer--more like the center singer.
LB: So you don't begrudge being known as the Bench Press?
(Rod Tuffcurls laughs manaically)
(Uncle Sex) Rod Tuffcurls laughs manaically.
Well it's confusing when people say: "hey look, it's Rod Tuffcurls!" People assume that it's the Tuffcurls, but there aren't any Tuffcurls.
In fact, people will say that they're going to see the Tuffcurls.
This actually reminds me of my dad. My father was a judge, and his father before him was a judge, and they just judged.
His dad before him was a drummer in a cover band.
Right. And he's extremely judgmental.
LB: So what's the process of choosing your covers?
Kinda trying to up the ante now to some degree. It's got to be good.
Sometimes it's just obvious. Like when Call me Maybe came out.
Actually that was through Bloomington! Girls kept asking us to do it. But I feel like I'm (Rod Tuffcurls) just the main force in keeping back every good song we want to do.
And pushing forward the really, really, really horrible shi--
Water bottle me!
(Rod Tuffcurls hurls water bottle)
LB: So what can people who have never seen you before expect from the experience?
T&BP: We want their minds to be blown, honestly.
Good or bad.
We want them to say that we were the best band they've ever seen.
To just walk out and say...what the hell was that?
We're gonna hurt your brain, and melt your heart.
We want you to get laid.
Period.
And we range from Les Miserables to Nine Inch Nails, to Mariah Carey to the Beatles, so there's just something for everybody. And for some reason, people keep coming.
And as you can see we're truly, truly dorks. Like really intense nerds.
I'm going to go back to an earlier answer and say herpes.
Water bottle me.
LB: Can I get your autographs?
Post by Brandon Cook
