Rev. Norb
Introduction
Rev. Norb is a certifiable freak who also happens to write a column for Maximum Rocknroll and engages in much punk terrorism with Boris the Sprinkler.
Interview
How have you seen punk rock change since you became involved with it?
Rev. Norb: No. Well, yes. I don't know. Perhaps. I guess. Errr, I don't know. The song remains the same, the song retains the name, the song Ramones the same, the song marones the rame. Oh heck, I don't know. Yeah. Well, maybe.
Is it better now or worse than when you got involved?
Rev. Norb: It's probably better, although . well, it's probably worse. Well, it's hard to say because I was half my age then and things seemed a lot better from certain personal standpoints, but then again, errr, ah, I think that's a judgment call. I think there's far to much subjectivity that has to be placed into that because if you're, like, say, 14 years old and you're listening to records then you can appreciate them in a different way because you don't necessarily have to deal with the nuts and bolts and blah blah blah of making the punk rock thing, which is partially adolescent fantasy, into reality, whereas if you're 30 years old, you can have money and you can put out your own your records and you can make the covers the way you want to and you may have some graphic art background and you can make sleeves. You can do these things yourself but yet, then again, somehow, putting everything from the abstract idea, the veritable neo-Platonistic perfect realm of the abstract thought punk rock which may be in your head when you're 14, it may lose something in the natural friction that comes with it as it progresses out into the real world, so it's a trade off. It's probably exactly the same, just different.
Do you think there's anything wrong with punk?
Rev. Norb: All the yucky bands must go away. Septum rings, no. No, no septum rings.
What's good about it?
Rev. Norb: Punk rock is good because the three chords and the chord progressions that are generally used in punk rock stimulate the central nervous system in a direct way that is not often used by our rock 'n' roll forefathers and the natural graphic aesthetic contours also stimulate the retinas in a way that is parallel to the central nervous system's stimulation given by the simplistic yet energetic music, which somehow creates a state of mind whereby the past, the present and the future are all united in one contemporary rock 'n' roll punk rock monad and I think it will help us transcend our mere three dimensionality by becoming more two dimensional and progressing into the fourth dimension, like not just sticking with the third dimension but by vacillating, I think we can get more two dimensional and more four dimensional which is better than being merely three dimensional which is what most non-punk-type aesthetic rock 'n' roll things strive for. Three dimensionalism is completely overrated. It's 2D, it's 4D. You can pop back and forth, like some weird quantum shift. If you could see my hands, you'd really know what I was talking about a lot better, but that's about it.
How have you seen the crowds and people at shows change?
Rev. Norb: Yes.
Do you see any problems with the way people act at shows?
Rev. Norb: Well, there are all sorts of different problems. You got the really stupid guys sometimes who are clobbering people and then sometimes you don't have any stupid guys but you have this bizarre, sheep-like consumer mentality, so there's not like one wrong thing. At different times, there's different stupid people doing different stupid things that are foolish, but I could not actually say that about all crowds or a great gigantic amount of people. It varies from place to place and city to city and show to show and people to people and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
What can we do to make the scene better?
Rev. Norb: Give me more Sweet Tarts, give me your panties, get me more Chevrons of love!
Any final thoughts? Anything you'd like to add?
Rev. Norb: I'd just like to say that four for a dollar Tijuana tacos seemed like a good idea at the time. Please pass the toilet paper.
