Joe Queer Interview

OK, I post this cuz the Queers are absolutely the best, but also due to the mention of a certain punk rock band from Wilmington... Thanks Joe!

"The Return of the Queers"
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
By Mike Sembos

If everyone who saw the Ramones went out and started their own band there would be too many bands that sound like the Ramones. For a while this was the case. Joe King started his band, The Queers, in 1982, and while much of the competition from that original wave has long since traded in their second-hand Marshall stacks for business casual, he has kept The Queers at it in some capacity for 22 years.

We caught up with King as he was about to hit the road.

Advocate: You've had no less than 30 other members of The Queers. Do you find this constant rotation liberating or annoying?

Joe King: Liberating. It keeps everything fresh. It doesn't matter who's playing with me. If it's me on stage with your grandmother in a muu muu, it's The Queers.

What's this about doing a pop tour? I hear there will be a keyboard player, too?

Not for the New Haven show, but next month we're doing a pop tour. I'm thinking of doing a whole set with lots of covers and cool songs we all love that never get played live. Beach Boys and Lesley Gore and shit like that.

How is the new record coming along?

We'll record this winter. I keep putting it off as I have a studio and I've been busy as hell doing that. Then, my wife and I just moved back to Atlanta from New Hampshire and I had to move all my gear to a new studio. I'm getting my two inch MCI JH24 tape machine today, actually! I'm pro analog. I hate recording with some fucking nerd with glasses staring at a fucking computer screen - you know the asshole hasn't been laid in about 15 years and has nothing to share about life...looking like the fucking trombone player for Reel Big Fish. I need some dude that's lived life with a huge tape machine going, telling me about cornholing some young chick the night before or something. It gets you in the vibe to record. It's a spiritual thing really.

Name some favorite places to play in Connecticut.

Oh man, it seemed there were lots of hardcore kids back in the day. But yeah, Connecticut? Shit, we opened up for The Ramones in '86 at the Agora in Hartford. This was before we ever toured. There were about 4,000 people there. We'd never played in front of 400, never mind 4,000. We got up and played for about 58 minutes. Played everything we knew and a few we didn't. Got offstage and Joey came up and told me when you open up for bands just play 22 minutes and get offstage cause the crowd doesn't wanna see you anyway. Best advice I ever got.

Are there any new bands that you're into that we should know about?

Eh, Unbelievers, Tit Patrol, Riptides, though they're not really new. Mostly underground punk bands.

You played at Cafe Nine last year and now you're coming back. Do you remember anything about that last show there?

Yeah the owner is great and there's a good vibe to that club. The crowd was energetic. I liked it a lot. Can't wait to get back.

The Queers Live!!

Here is most of a live set from the best pop-punk band in the world (which is to say the best band in the world period, cause pop-punk is the most truly vital music, along with soul and bubblegum), the motherfuckin' Queers motherfucker! It is almost in order, but not really. Live at the CPA in Italy, 2002, with a great line-up... Joe Queer on vocal and guitar, Dangerous Dave on bass, Matt Drastic of Halflings fame on drums, DANNY VAPID on second guitar, and my man Wimpy joins the boys on vocals. Watch the Queers live right here at Danthology!

"You're Trippin'"
"Live This Life"
"Monster Zero"
"I Hate Everything"
"Hi Mom, It's Me"
"No Tit"
"Rockaway Beach" by the Ramones
"The Kids Are Alright" by the Who
"Granola Head"
"Tamara is a Punk"
"Ursula Finally Has Tits"
"See Ya Later Fuckface"
"I Only Drink Bud"
"Sidewalk Surfer Girl"
"Get a Life and Live It"
"My Old Man's a Fatso" by the Angry Samoans
"Ben Weasel"
"Love Love Love"
"Another Girl"
"Like a Parasite"
"I'll Be True To You" by the Monkees
"Teenage Bonehead"
"Too Many Twinkies"
"Debra Jean"
"Noodlebrain"
"We'd Have a Riot Doing Heroin" & "Terminal Rut" & "Fagtown"
"Wimpy Drives Through Harlem"
"Kicked Out of the Webelos"
"Tulu is a Wimp" & "I Want Cunt"
"I Spent the Rent" & "Nothing To Do"
"Fuck You"
"I Like Young Girls"
"This Place Sucks"
"Fuck the World"

Tit Patrol Gets Less Worse

We're back! Delaware's preeminent pop-punk five piece Tit Patrol has just returned from a five day sojourn to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, birthplace and current residence of (the legendary) Joe Queer. We recorded our second full length record entitled "Tit Patrol Gets Less Worse", thirteen songs, all pure gold, including a Ramones cover and a Power of IV cover. Portsmouth was great, even with their 98% Caucasian status (as opposed to our precious Wilmington at around 36% whities) they were great to us. We recorded at the Electric Cave with punk engineer extraordinaire Jim Teirney and Joe Queer produced us, along with an assist from Wimpy! Joe and Wimpy even sang on a bunch of tunes! We in the Tit really can't thank those dudes enough for being so cool, even if they were a bad influence on the Main Man Timmy Toner, who is now a bad-ass pop punk dude, and to him we're all "motherfuckers." His drums are wicked loud and live and meaty, Mike "The Rad One" Radka was absolutely smokin' on lead guitar, and Grant impressed us all with above and beyond vocals. Look for "Gets Less Worse" out on Madison Underground Records this February, the perfect Valentine's gift. What's more, Joe and Jim worked out a deal for us for a full pro mixing board, alot of pro equipment, including the one inch eight track that "Kicked Out of the Webelos" was recorded on! That means that Madison Underground Studios will be up and running this spring/summer. SO... come out this Saturday (December 6) to the Bike Spot on 19th and Market in Wilmington and dig the incomparable Tit Patrol, along with the Stalkers from Brooklyn, The Toughshits from Philly, The Hunt Club, Sexon Horses, and the Apes, be there by seven or something, and as always, Tit Patrol hates everybody else!!

Tit Patrol and Joe Queer

Here are a slew of photos from Tit Patrol's recording session at the Electric Cave in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.














Todd Patrol - guitar

Mike "The Rad One" Radka - lead guitar

Grant Robinson - vocals

Timmy "Main Man" Toner - drums

Wimpy and Joe Queer - producers

Father and Son? Wimpy Rutherford and Mike Radka

Shootin' the Puss.

Danny Robinson - bass

Creepy Uncle Jim Teirney - engineer