I moved to Memphis 20 years ago. Legendary local punk band Pezz is celebrating their 20th anniversary this weekend. I’m getting terribly nostalgic right about now, thinking back on the good ole days of the Antenna, Howard’s Donuts, Decadence Manor…
Life – and Memphis – have certainly changed in the past 20 years, but I’m thrilled that Pezz is still together and as strong as ever. I’ve posted a couple of interviews with Marvin and Ceylon (here and here) over the past few months, and want to close out the series by showing you how these guys are driving our community forward even when off stage. So with no further ado, here is the life of Pezz: 20th Anniversary style:
What do you do when you aren’t playing music?
Marvin: I’m a husband and a father of two great girls. I love being a dad and love taking the girls to the Levitt Shell and other great things in Memphis. I work at the Church Health Center. I’m on the board of Memphis Rock-n-Romp and Our Own Voice Theatre Troupe. I’m on the marketing committee for Leadership Memphis. Sarah and I are small group leaders at our church, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. I try to be involved in things I believe in, but the commitments I keep also happen to be the ones that are a lot of fun and feed my soul. I love Memphis Tiger basketball… my one concession to watching television with any regularity. I’ve been following the Tigers since I was a little boy and I got my degree there, so Tiger hoops is special. I gotta get to the Deli or Hi Tone and yell and scream myself hoarse.
Ceylon: Gardening, peace activism with the Midsouth Peace and Justice Center (mspjc.org), and voices (vcnv.org)…just got back from the annual school of assassins protest (soaw.org). Also, I’m slowing down the aging process through exercise. I just realized my answer isn’t entirely true…everything I own is broken, so I spend a lot of time chasing solutions to the problem of everything being broken–cars, house, music gear, everything I should own that really owns me. That takes up all of my free time and it will for another two years I think. I kiss my pretty girl whenever I can. I hope that continues for another two years!
Marvin, what do your daughters think of the band? Do you think they’ll follow in your footsteps and be musicians? Do you miss touring?
Marvin: It was a very proud moment for me when I realized that my daughter Genevieve’s rock canon… bands she knew well enough to ask for by name (at age 2 ½!)… was Social Distortion, Rocket From the Crypt, Leatherface and Pezz. In my book, that’s great company. She learned which songs I sung and which ones were Ceylon singing. Later on she asked me what the words meant and it opened up wonderful discussions. Young children can surprise you by what they can comprehend and often, my own understanding benefited from seeing how a young mind, free of common adult assumptions, thought through something.
The girls are both very musical… I hear Genevieve in at the piano as I type this, in fact. She’s had no training but she is clearly picking out a melody and the bass notes are being played in a complementary rhythm to the melody line. It’s very raw, but it’s not just the random pounding on the keys she used to do when she was younger. Nothing would make me happier than to one day play music with my daughters, but I want them to follow their muse and develop organically into the creative people they feel called to be.
We will probably get them lessons, and we need to get the piano tuned up. My wife’s father is a great piano and pipe organ player and both of Sarah’s parents have a great working knowledge of classical music that will help round out their granddaughter’s musical foundation. I still love playing live shows and the rare out of town shows are still as fun as ever, but I don’t pine for the road or feel like I’ve made a painful sacrifice. I traded up. If the girls want to form a band, I’ll support the idea and help them any way I can.
Ceylon, what has being in a punk band taught you? Is there a connection to your work as a peace activist?
Ceylon: Absolutely. I don’t separate the two, really. The world is what it is and you are what you are – say something about it, do something about it. If you’re gonna sing, make the words count. Economics, communication, organization, resource sharing, long-term commitment, forward motion. Your relations tend to be person-to-person. The activities are managed and run by the participants. Organizing and traveling in the antiwar movement is almost identical to being a touring band. It works almost the same, and the oddball personalities of one come up in the other a whole lot.
Okay, I do have to ask at least one band-related question: why did you add Graham Burks on drums and why did Ceylon move to third guitar?
Marvin: Ceylon had played drums for the last 10 years and, while he’s a great drummer, the Pezz sound was built, in part, on his guitar voice playing off mine. So, it’s great that he’s so versatile and willing to do whatever the band needs, but Ceylon is a great guitar player and we’ve always wanted to get him back on guitar. The problem was that we could never find anyone who could play drums as aggressively as we really needed.
At the Antenna Reunion last August, Ceylon and Christian went to see the Recoil reunion and thought Graham had the punk rock chops, so we asked him to play with us and it has really worked out well. He’s a versatile, hard-hitting drummer and a quick study. We sound great with Graham behind the kit, and it’s great to have Ceylon back on guitar. This means we have three guitar players now,* which is uncommon in punk rock but not unheard of. One of our favorite bands, Articles of Faith, had three guitars and they are certainly a musical influence on us, and our friends While I Breathe I Hope have had three guitars before. Both of those bands use three guitars to great effect, so we’re looking forward to seeing what we can do with three guitars.
* Shawn Apple joined last fall when Anthony Siracusa left on his year-long Watson Fellowship to study how people across the world use bicycles. To catch up on his travels, visit anthonysiracusa.blogspot.com
So don’t miss the Pezz 20th anniversary show at the Hi Tone on Friday, June 11! The show starts at 9 p.m. and is 18+. The show’s $10 cover includes a copy of the new Pezz 7” record. People who buy the record will receive a free download code inside the record. For those not interested in the vinyl, the EP will also be available for purchase online as a download. If you can’t wait, check out Kirk Rawlings’ review of “The Wicked Leading the Blind” on Live From Memphis- yes, there’s even an mp3 teaser. You can also find Pezz on MySpace and Facebook.
