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| Useless courtesy of the band. |
ALL WE GOT IS LOUD
By Matt Chrystal
After a five year hiatus, Useless are back!
The hard rockin' stoner / doom / metal band are bringing the heavy back to the Saint in Asbury Park this Friday, October 18. If you have ever been to a rock show in New Jersey or used the restroom in any dive bar in the good ol' Garden State, then chances are you have seen the band's stickers still plastered up or peeling off the walls.
Once upon a time, everything seemed to be turning up Useless: The band were getting airplay on WSOU. They were playing consistent gigs to raucous crowds; and they put out a very memorable, dolphin-inspired music video for their song, "One More Day." Then, somewhere around 2014, they were gone. For whatever reason, the story of Useless was seemingly over.
Until now!
Useless are comprised of close friends, big personalities, and a desire to play LOUD. Ian Smith (King), Ron Russomono (Mono), Matt Cullen (Pork Chop), Ralph DellaSala (RFDS), and Kevin Ward (PorkSword) decided that getting together to re-form like a heavy-metal Voltron for some beers, laughs, and jams was just too much damn fun of an idea to pass up. Time has apparently healed old wounds, and 2019 has been deemed the right time to bring back their unique brand of loud, sludgy, metal music. Useless claim that, this time around, the band will be More Useless than Useless. That's right. The boys are back to play and they plan to play it LOUD.
I caught up with Ian (King) and Ron (Mono) as they were practicing for the upcoming Saint show to find out more about the Useless reunion…
UnCool Matty C: Welcome back! So, Useless are reuniting after a five year hiatus… What brought about the reunion?
Ron Russomono (Mono): Time, mostly. We have talked about it a couple of different times, but it took time because it wasn't the nicest of breakups. By talking to each other over the past year, we started to miss what we had, and we all wanted it again. It just took time for all egos and feels to heal a little bit and remember the fun we had.
Ian MacKenzie Smith (King): Life's only so long. Useless is longer than that. It was pointless to resist.
UUM: Will this go 'round feature the original members? Or have there been any changes to the band's lineup?
Ron: Kevin (Ward) aka PorkSword wasn't our original drummer, but once he came aboard is when we started gaining momentum!
King: We all figured out that this is Useless and probably will be for the duration.
UUM: What have you guys been in up to in your time away from Useless?
King: Work. Worky, worky ,worky, workety, work. I got married to an amazing woman. That happened right after the end of the band. I've just spent time with my family; saw a few shows and whatnot.
Not much writing. Because of the nature of the breakup I wasn't all that hot on music. I played a bit with my boy Frank and this monster drummer "Reg" Hogan (formerly of Daisycutter)... but it just wasn't USELESS. They're still going on. It's called 19DRT. I have spent the time building my business (insert plug for Stuck Up Sticker Company here) and just being a happy guy.
Ron: Kevin and I continued to play together in a band called Bionic Monkey. It was more of a "Clutch" sounding band. It had a totally different sound from Useless. Bionic Monkey started to fall apart right around the same time we started to get serious about bringing Useless back. I guess timing is everything on this one. No one knows what RFDS does. He is an enigma. Matt (Cullen) has been jamming on the bass with some guys.
UUM: What did you miss the most during your time away from the band?
King: I missed jamming. I missed playing shows. That's always been a part of my life since I was a teenager, from playing backyards with five people to some bigger shows across the country. Live performance is like nothing else!
On stage with these fuckers is awesome; and, yeah, it's a step above performing with others, but the real core, the real love, the real fire of Useless is something you'll never see… that's for us.
Ron: I have always looked at playing in Useless as my bowling night or softball league. It's my time out to unwind with some beer and friends. The friends happen to be the band, and playing is a bonus to the evening. The whole night is where the memories come from, not just the 30-45 minutes on stage.
UMM: The Saint in Asbury Park has long been "home base" for the band, as it has been host for many shows; and, of course, it provided the back drop for your infamous music video shoot for "One More Day." Your first show after reforming is this Friday at the Saint. Why are Useless and The Saint perfect together?
King: Scott Stamper (owner of the Saint) is the reason. He is just a true motherfucker. He and Meg (Donoghue) and all the people that have worked there have always been the base of Asbury (pronounced Ass-berry).
We are that club: small, underrated and low-key, but fuck if I haven't seen some of the most AMAZING shows there! That place always seemed to operate on the idea of bringing real music to the people. They are not packing the house with cover bands or cowing to trends or even playing nice with others. Scott puts on what he wants to. In the atmosphere of a rapidly gentrifying Asbury Park and the homogenization of the local music scene, Scott and the Saint are the fucking Alamo. I'll happily go down with that ship and I think Useless would too.
I'd be happier jamming in the garage for the rest of my useless life than paying assholes to play their gigs.
Ron: Scott and Meg have always been great to us. They have always given us great nights to play. Scott gave us our first show before Matt (Cullen) was even in the band. We were an instrumental band and I asked into the mic if anyone was interested in singing for us. As soon as we were done playing, Matt came up to the stage and introduced himself. He had been playing bass in another band that night.
UUM: Is this reunion show a one-off? Or will you be playing more shows after that?
King: We're Useless, man. You think we have plans?
Ron: I would like to expand on the places we have played. Get down into Delaware and Maryland. Perhaps going North. I have a contact in upstate New York for a couple of places. We will see.
UMM: What can we look forward to in the future? New songs? New album?
King: Well, since we are so Useless, I'm going to contradict myself here. We do have plans to re-record our demo, possibly flesh it out as an album with PorkSword, our current drummer. We have albums of Useless shit in the works. We all have our own influences and inspirations, we have songs and riffs; and, well, sometimes one note begets and entire song. We don't put restrictions on what's coming up. We just let it flow. Like a really bad morning after a week of drinking... Don't fight it. Just grab a magazine and your phone and stay on the bowl until the waves pass. Maybe grab a cup of coffee if you have to make it to work, but you get the idea.
Ron: We have talked about it, that after this show we will start to write new songs. Me and Ian alone probably have enough riffs to write more songs than we need. We will see how long it takes us to get any done. The name of the band doesn't lie; we are the biggest procrastinators when it comes to writing. I would also like to do another video.
UUM: Speaking of videos, going back to your video for "One More Day," could you just explain the concept of "Dolphin Love?"
King: To truly understand the gospel of Dolphin Love, you have to get one of our old full-length copies of our demo and listen to the entirety of "One More Day."
I know CDs are passé nowadays, and I don't know if there are any out there. I do know that I have the file, and you can be assured the Word of the Fin will be included on any further release. So maybe your readers will just have to go sharkin' to understand. There's one question I have for you. I'm down for Dolphin Love, how tough are ya?
Ron: All I will add to that is, it did come from a very intoxicated night in a hotel room with the entire band. The question that started it all was, "What do you think a dolphin with no tail drinks?" The night went downhill from there.
Useless (with Until It Hurts and Kiss Kiss Bang) play the Saint in Asbury Park, TONIGHT, Friday October 18.
Follow Useless at www.Facebook.com/allwegotisloud and www.Instagram.com/allwegotisloud.
Check out the video for "One More Day."
And get all your stickers from www.StuckUpSticker.com.
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