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Elusive and cool, Motorcycle Boy has remained true to their roots, classic punk with street class and style despite and lame trends that are being sold in music. Motorcycle Boy is the missing link between the New York Dolls and ... well the New York Dolls. Most main-street journalists never understood the link between punk and trash glam and wrongly put any punk band that does not dress up like Sid Vicious down as a metal glam band. MusicThatJumpedTheShark.com is striving to right that wrong once and for all.
Motorcycle Boy has just reissued their fantastic album "Popsicle" - legendary in glampunk circles. Popsicle is out now on the very rad punk label Nickel and Dime, links below for purchase. The reissues features, new unreleased cool artwork and pictures or our heroes, unreleased tracks with Keith Morris from the Circle Jerks as producer. The album also features production and a lead vocal track by non other the the legend himself; Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls. If that's not enough it also has a free bonus DVD of some legendary Motorcycle Boy live shows and live in studio sets.
Motorcycle Boy's "Popsicle" is a real treat to listen to and, like the Dolls records, will offer you many years of repeated listening for the 'vibe'. Recently we hounded Francios of Motorcycle Boy to spill the beans of the hows and whys of their mystique, and here is what we got:
{MusicThatJumpedTheShark.com staff goth David Lee Goth in black}: Firstly; we here at MusicThatJumpedTheShark.Com pride ourselves on our promotion of correcting people on what glampunk is. We were happy to find that Motorcycle Boy has reissued "Popsicle" and surprised to find the band alive, well & playing shows. How on Earth did you get Sylvain Sylvain of the glorious New York Dolls to produce your record?
{Francios of Motorcycle Boy in red}:
I was in NYC, walking down St. Marks and I bumped in to him (literally). I looked at the guy and it was Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls. We started talking about Rock N Roll, and I told him about my band Motorcycle Boy, then we preceded to go to the Alcatraz ( a bar on 3rd) where I preceded to buy a beer for this legendary Idol of mine and then we began to talk about working together.
Please give little details of what it was like to work with Sylvain Sylvain and what he was like in person:
Sylvain was with us at every recording session, He sang on the 1st track, which was amazing. He was there as a producer, but he really did was smoke pot. But I still love him. Silly question. As a person..who doesn’t LOVE Sylvain.
Did Sylvain Sylvain give any New York Dolls stories or comparisons to Motorcycle Boy?
NO. But he gave us New York Dolls stories.
How did you get hooked up with Keith Morris of the Circle Jerks to produce your first 7 inch record?
I ran in to him. He was Keith Morris and we hit it off.
Why did you not work with Keith Morris again?
He was too busy with other projects...
What was Keith Morris like to work with? Please give little details as to his personality etc.
Very professional and got the job done, he didn’t smoke pot, but drank coffee like a fish. That was his kick. He loved and saw the rock n roll in us. A pleasure to work with.
Can you please give the run down of who was in the original Motorcycle Boy line up & how they came and went from the band?
There have been so many people in the band it was a revolving door. No one ever quit, was kicked out or fired. They are still members of the band.
How did the punks react to Motorcycle Boy when you guys were first out?
The Punks liked us a lot, even if we looked a bit Glam, they could see that we were real.
How did the metal heads react to Motorcycle Boy when you guys were first out?
No association with the metal heads. They hated me and I hated them.
Please give us some great fun stories of what it was like on the sunset strip back in the day:
Shooting Heroin in the VIP bathroom, upstairs at the Whiskey. And the occasional blow job in the very same bathroom.
Any Bill Gazzarri stories?
Never set foot in that place ever and damn proud of it.
Any Riki Rachtman stories?
Cocky, jealous mother fucker, wouldn’t even talk to me.
Did Motorcycle Boy ever get any label interest for a second record? Why or why not?
We did get some label interest. Virgin Records gave us a demo deal for $1k. Others were interested as well. Heroin killed us. But we are still standing.
Any great stories of playing with or hanging with The Zeros (purple hair one - not the punk one)?
I did a show at Rajis. We performed their one single and the singer was soo freaked out, he jumped on stage, grabbed the mic and started singing it himself. I don’t know why, he must have thought that it was blasphemy, but we were really trying to give him a compliment. On another occasion, they were set to play, I didn’t have a bass amp. So, I plugged into theirs and played my set. Afterwards, the Zeros bass player was furious. Later he realized who I was and apologized. Kids.. Young.. What ya gonna do? Now were friends.
What hold bands like Dogs D`Amour, Hanoi Rocks, etc from commercial success? What don't people get?
They don’t see the magic.
Did you guys see your selves in the tradition of Dogs D`Amour, Hanoi Rocks, etc.?
Sure, why not.
Whose idea was it for Motorcycle Boy to go to New York?
Some Japanese chick flew us their and put us up.
Did that move cause troubles that killed off the band line up quicker then it would have?
It made us stronger.
What bands have become music that jumped the shark?
DEVO.
~A nice thanks to Francios of Motorcycle Boy for the fun times and insight. Don't forget to add one to your record collection by picking up the special addition of the fantastic "Popsicle" out now via Nickel and Dime Records at this link.~
~Also, stay up and current on the latest and greatest with Motorcycle Boy at this link.~
Viva la till later;
David Lee Goth - "After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." - Aldous Huxley
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