Ryan Waste from Municipal Waste joined the “Riffing With Christina” podcast this week to chat about the band’s new record, “Slime and Punishment,” playing abandoned buildings with dry ice in the early days, Kathy Griffin’s lawyer calling them after she got done for blowing up Trump (a year after the band have had the same image emblazoned on their backdrop) and getting Vinnie from Agnostic Front on the new record, which is a rollicking, thrashing, riffing good time. Subscribe to the Riffing with Christina podcast on iTunes here. Get “Slime and Punishment” on iTunes here. A few moments from our podcast chat:
Christina: What’s the wildest show you’ve ever played?
Ryan: I’ve got a good one for you. This is like first era, 2001 Municipal Waste, original lineup. We actually played a burned down house, that was next door to a house [where] we had friends that lived there. We ran power, an extension cord, into this house that had just burned down. The ceiling was caving in, there was asbestos. It was just like the most dangerous place you could put people in. The roof was caving in, people would fall through the ceiling while we were playing. Just to add to that, we put little coolers of dry ice [on the stage] just to set the tone. I actually have that on video. I had an old handheld VHS camcorder, I have a copy of the tape. No one’s ever seen it besides our friends. That was pretty wild.
Christina: You need to use it for a video, like a music video.
Ryan: We need to do a DVD history thing because I have so much old footage. People don’t even know how the band started.
Christina: What would we learn from this footage?
Ryan: [The band] started in a dingy garage bunker-type space behind my house. I used to do punk shows and metal shows there, it was just like a free for all. A lot of squatters and train hoppers would frequent my house. It was a shit show, man. A girl tried to commit suicide hanging off my balcony. My roommate tried to burn the house down. (For more on this story, check out the podcast).
Christina: [Slime and Punishment] feels like a police chase in the Scooby Doo van, and climbing out your bedroom window to get in the Scooby Doo van and go on a police chase. And then on “Parole Violators” there was actual police sirens.
Ryan: So you were already feeling that vibe before getting to that song? Wow, you’re really in tune with your feelings. We just wanted an excuse to have Vinnie Stigma on the record, because we were in a tour bus with Agnostic Front earlier this year with Suicidal Tendencies, Waste and Agnostic Front. We did a European tour and we shared a bus with Agnostic Front, they’re old friends. Suicidal [Tendencies] are old friends of ours. We were just really comfortable and Vinnie Stigma is one of the funniest guys I know. So me and Johnny were like, “Man, it would be great to get his voice on a record, but he’s got to be a cop. I played a delinquent “parole violator.” It’s actually an early 90’s B-movie. It was loosely based on that. The siren was an actual New York City police siren … I taped Vinnie just on my phone. It was actually one of the hardest things to get right on the record. NOTE: You can watch “Parole Violators” (1994) below. Yes, I found it.
This podcast took place via phone from Sydney, Australia to a tour bus approaching Mount Rushmore on a tour day off.
Christina: Have you got any plans to deface said monument, Mount Rushmore?
Ryan: I think we’ve done enough to the current president, defacing him. We have a backdrop with him blowing his head off. Actually an Australian guy drew it, too. It’s been quite the topic of conversation.
Christina: I thought it was interesting Kathy Griffin calling you guys out [when she got in heaps of trouble for holding Trump’s head].
Ryan: We did that two years ago. they’re just scraping for something. It’s like, don’t make a statement and apologise, it just makes you look insincere … it gave us a ton of press, and we like that kind of press. It reminded me of the PRMC when Twisted Sister was in the courtroom. It made me laugh, honestly. It’s dark times but the fact that they’re going to blame a gender thing on these male heavy metal bands and call us “bad boys”? It doesn’t get much funnier to me than that. Its like a sample. They’re just giving us gold.
