Sweep the Leg Johnny, Chicago's badass backlash against poppy punk, plays Club 770 this Friday. Known for their angsty beats, sax riffs and a phatty van named Marge, these kids hope to make a name for themselves in Europe as they embark on their spring tour. The Daily Cardinal rapped with singer/saxophonist Steve Sostak about four-square, '80s kitsch and Italian cuss words.
The Daily Cardinal: So, Sweep the Leg Johnny, how did you guys start up?
Steve Stostak: Chris, the guitar player, and I met at school in 1994. When the band really got going, we hooked up with some of my old friends in Chicago and started touring a lot right away. We met our most recent bass player, John, a little while later, and he joined the band two years ago.
DC: I take it your name's from The Karate Kid. Do any of you practice martial arts?
SS: We pulled our name out of a hat in a drunken stupor one night. We were all obsessed with cable TV when we were kids, so in a twisted way the name fits our personalities since we're all '80s movie freaks. We're not too into martial arts, but we're all into baseball. Chris and I play in a hardball league in Chicago in the summer. A lot of rocker kids from the city play in the league like the guys from Haymarket Riot. The owner of the Fireside Bowl plays, too. In fact, he's sponsoring our team this year. We're called the Fireside Bowl Red Sox.
DC: I also heard that you're quite the four-square jocks. Is this true?
SS: We're all sort of closet jocks, and, yes, we've been known to play four-square all night with kids from our shows. We kick ass, too, by the way, and we'd be happy to challenge anyone up there in Madison to be at the playground at midnight.
DC: Throwing down the gauntlet? We'll be there, punks!
SS: Bring it on!
DC: Anyhow, speaking of bringing it on, I hear that your latest album, \Sto Cazzo!"" means ""Holy Dick!"" in Italian. Would you care to explain how this puckish title came about?
SS: It seems that we get all of our names in drunken states...We were doing a show in L'aquia, a town in Italy. People in Italy speak much more Italian than English, unlike some European countries where everyone seems to know some English. So their English is really broken. The promoter for our show kept yelling ""Sto Cazzo!"" when he heard us. Literally, ""cazzo"" means dick, cock or penis. Roughly it means ""Wow!"" and ""Holy Prick!"" or ""Holy Dick!"" literally. We thought it was just perfect, a perfect description of our live show.
DC: Who are your main musical influences?
SS: There are no particularly direct influences. I think we have a pretty unique sound, and our listening tastes are pretty eclectic. A bunch of us started out playing in orchestra as kids, plus we all have our rock roots, but we definitely don't wear our influences on our sleeve.
DC: Orch dorks, eh? Who's your favorite classical cat?
SS: I've been getting into George Ligetty a lot lately. He's the guy who does a lot of the music for Stanley Kubrick films. He does a lot of polymelodic things and produces this sound that's dissonant, tense, intimidating and brooding at the same time. As you can probably tell, I've been watching a lot of Kubrick films. John's also a fan of Phillip Glass and Gorecki.
DC: How would you characterize Sweep the Leg Johnny's style?
SS: The critics have been labeling us anything from ""chaotic"" to ""art punk."" Sometimes we get compared to '70s prog bands like King Crimson. At the core level, we're a punk rock band--hard, loud, sweaty and intense. But there is a more cerebral side to our music. We practice a lot and spend time writing music that has a lot of intricacies. We play longer songs, too. A lot of times we'll have a song that's 15 minutes long. Like right now, we're trying to write a 40-minute, one-song record.
DC: Have you played in Madison lately?
SS: We haven't played Madison in a while. About two years ago we played O'Cayz. We also played a house show and a show at the Catacombs with this great Italian band called Uzeda. They're a Touch and Go band from Sicily that we're big fans of. The [Friday] show is our first on our new tour. We just got off a 50-show tour, then Scotty broke his collarbone. We've been playing again for about three weeks, so this show should be a great warm-up before we head off to Europe.
DC: How did you hook up with the Euro gig?
SS: Our relationship with Southern [record label] got us in the door. Southern has a branch in London plus our home branch in Chicago, plus they spotted us the cash for plane tickets. Our records have had solid distribution in London, but they haven't really caught on there, so we're hoping that by going on tour there we can promote the record. We've always dreamed of doing a European tour, and Southern gave us the ability to do it without completely losing our ass.
DC: Do the Germans dig your style?
SS: I hope so. I think people over there are a bit more open-minded, plus the scene isn't so oversaturated with music there. The shows have pretty decent turn-outs, plus you get treated really well. Every time we've played in Europe, there's been a meal waiting for us right after soundcheck. The hospitality there has been great.
DC: How would you describe your fan base?
SS: A lot of kids who are into us are other musicians. In fact, we were reviewed by the NME in London, and they called our fans ""a bunch of portly blokes who own record stores."" We've also got punk kids who are into the power of the music. I guess you could say it's smart rock meets kids who get sweaty. Also, we like having girls there ... the ladies love us, of course.
