Howitzer

Interview with Jim of Howitzer. This is an interview I did for a failed 'zine attempt which happened around Halloween. Have fun reading about Halloween.

1995

We are talking with Jim of Howitzer, say hi Jim.

Jim: Hello.

Jim is the Guitarist/Singer of Howitzer. Who would you say you sound most like.

Jim: I have no idea.

There you have it. What is your favorite thing to do on Halloween?

Jim: I don't know, its been a long time since I've done it.

What do you hate most about Halloween?

Jim: I don't know, Halloween's cool I guess, you get to eat candy, Its been a long time.

What was your favorite Halloween prank?

Jim: Throwing Corn Cobs at people's houses.

(stupidly) Corn Cobs, what are those?

Jim: You don't know what a Corn Cob is?

Oh, wait, you mean like Corn on the Cob.

Jim: Well, have you ever seen those German grenades. Take off one end of the Corn on the Cob, kinda like you have a handle on it, it looks like one of those German grenades. One end is heavier so it flips over and over and it does some damage to houses.

That's cool.

Jim: But you've gotta have corn fields.

You've done work on APKWIAB (A Punk Kid Walks Into A Bar), right?

Jim: Very little, I had a hook up for the printing.

Barclay, the bassist, does most of the work on that 'zine, right?

Jim: Right.

To date Howitzer has released Fat Math and that split 7" with SKEGS, what songs did you put on that 7"?

Jim: 3rd Degree, and Sunday Boring Sunday.

I understand that you are on Elevator Music, how did that come about?

Jim: We played a show at Tune Inn in New Haven and the owner asked us to do a 7". But I believe it is partially the fault of Kevin Kane, who does the Lighter 'Zine. He was there at our first show (at the Tune Inn) and was totally wasted. Whenever we stopped playing he'd scream "HOWITZER!". I assume the owner of the club heard everybody screaming "HOWITZER!" and he thought that everybody liked us and so he put out our 7". I give Kevin all the credit for that.

How did you guys meet up with SKEGS?

Jim: We met them a Tune Inn in New Haven.

So far you've played with The Ick, Skegs, Plow United...

Jim: Doc Hopper, Naked Aggression, Murphy's Law...

How was the Murphy's Law show?

Jim: It was good but we didn't stick around for Murphy's Law, we left.

Why? (laughing)

Jim: I don't know there was too many people there, so we left.

If there were one band you'd want to play with the most, who would it be?

Jim: Probably Social Distortion, but probably the rest of the group wouldn't agree with that. Barclay doesn't like them.

Is this your first interview?

Jim: Well, we did an interview for a Pennsylvania 'zine. Barclay I think did an Interview for somebody else. This is my first official interview, I don't really talk during the interviews. I kinda think they're (interview) funny. See, you might just sit here and talk to me but now since you've got that stupid thing (tape recorder) I've gotta talk differently. It's not like I'm talking to you It's like I'm talking to whoever happens to be there.

What is your favorite cover to do?

Jim: I don't know, There is an Agent Orange song that I like, that we did, that was pretty cool. We want to play at Arch Street so if anybody can hook that up..., 'cause I don't know how to do that.

Any future plans for a 7" or something?

Jim: We just recorded ten new songs a couple of weeks ago, I don't know, maybe we just might do a tape or something.