by Austin Kaus
He was born John Myers, but anyone familiar with the his work in The Stallones, Il Lust, Derek Post, Roman Ships, Pasque, Burlap Wolf King and The Amidon Affair probably know him better as “Slap.” In anticipation of The Amidon Affair’s newest release “Concrete Caves and Broken Waves,” Slap chatted with Austin Kaus about musical goals, bad movies, and guilty musical pleasures.
Tell me about what’s happened with the band since your last release.
SLAP: Matt had his 3rd baby daughter. I bought a house. Adam, Tim and I were in a Queens of the Stone Age tribute band, Adam and I started playing with Burlap Wolf King and Tim started a new project called Fantome. Surprisingly, he got better-looking since the last Amidon album.
What kind of things led you to record this album?
SLAP: Originally, Matt and I started The Amidon Affair as a recording project to make one record and then call it good. After Adam and Tim joined the project, we played some shows, recorded the first record and, all of a sudden, we were a full band. Matt and I realized we are currently working with (in our opinion) one of the best guitar players and drummers in Sioux Falls and we needed to keep this going. So right when the first record got done, the band decided “Lets shoot for one more,” and we started writing.
What were your goals with this album?
SLAP: The main goal was to make the songwriting stronger with this record then the last, not better but stronger. When we were writing songs for the first record, we were all pretty much rookies. I think now we have moved up to amateurs? Amateur rookies?
What’s next for the band?
SLAP: For right now, play more shows in and out of town. We will NEVER breakup. (smiles)
What do you think about the current state of the Sioux Falls scene?
SLAP: Only speaking for my band The Amidon Affair and bands that we play shows with (where we all pretty much play a form of rock music), I have noticed over the years that, at times, it has been pretty weak. I look at the EDM, hip-hop or folk scenes in Sioux Falls and it looks pretty good. But, not as many younger people are coming out to see shows and support local bands that play different forms of rock music, whether it’s heavy or fast, punk or whatever. We need more of that younger crowd to keep the scene going. I think it could get better, especially with the help of people like Tony DePaolo doing big shows like Oddfest that help promote local rock bands and Dan and Liz Nissen with Total Drag doing only all ages shows.
All right. Time to learn more about Slap. You used to host a Bad Movie Night. Best bad movie and why?
SLAP: Hands down my favorite is “Night Train to Terror.” It’s an absolute beautiful mess of a movie. It’s so bad its good or genius. The main premise is there is a train full of teenagers partying. But, it’s like a music video where there is a band amongst the teenagers that constantly play this horrible song over and over again. While that’s going on, God and Satan are arguing about the fate of these teenagers. In between THAT mess, three horror movie short films are played throughout the film. The three horror films were actually, at one time, full-length movies that were chopped up so bad … that they are beyond confusing to follow what’s going on. If you want to laugh and be very confused at the same time, watch this film.
First movie watched in a theatre?
SLAP: Just off the top of my head, I remember my parents taking me to “Silence of the Lambs” at a drive-in theatre. I recently watched the film for the first time since I was kid. There are some pretty messed up scenes in that film that I don’t think my parents were quite prepared for when taking a young, impressionable Slap.
Are there bad albums that you enjoy like bad movies?
SLAP: The only one I can think of is Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” album from 1984. Besides the title track, the rest of the album only has seven songs that are all pretty weak. Rockwell’s singing is pretty much a non-event, but I do enjoy listening to it. I do have many “guilty pleasures” when it comes to certain songs.
Name two guilty pleasure songs.
SLAP: Jennifer Lopez’s “If You Had My Love” and Jessica Simpson’s “Irresistible.”
What’s the first album you remember buying?
SLAP: I vividly remember as a kid going into an actual record store on a family vacation and buying AC/DC’s “High Voltage” with my own money on cassette tape. They pretty much had every AC/DC album available – which was very overwhelming – so what I grabbed was pretty random.
What’s the one thing you want to accomplish this year?
SLAP: Make a baby!
If you have a baby, will you name it “Slap Jr.”?
SLAP: Sure. Why the hell not?
Finally, make up and answer your own question
SLAP: What band would you like to see get back together and do a reunion show? Hollander. I am a sucker for the song “Tuesday.”
Check out The Amidon Affair’s release party for “Concrete Caves and Broken Waves” on Friday, Sept. 19th, at Total Drag in Sioux Falls. The all ages show is $8 and the new album is included with the door charge. Mind Machine and Corvette Cassette will also be on the bill. You can also check out and download the new album now at www.theamidonaffair.bandcamp.com.
To read Austin’s review of The Amidon Affair’s first album, click here.
