Fusing the elements of street punk and classic rock 'n roll with a sound that is unmistakably Los Angeles, the Angel City Outcasts were born in 2002 from the ashes of two local bands: Youth Rebellion and Broke 'Til Thursday. Having been friends for a long time, founding members Alex Brugge, Tak Boroyan, and Alex Zabolotsky decided to combine the music from their previous projects, while letting their individual talents stir together creating the individual sound that is the Outcasts.
The Dropkick Murphys were about to start their end-of-the-year tour, supported by The Mahones and The Loved Ones. At the last minute, both supporting acts dropped from the tour and the boys from Boston needed to fill the bill quickly. Everybody Out, featuring former Dropkick guitarist Rick Barton and Lost City Angels frontman Sweeney Todd, were onboard quickly but another band was needed. The guys from L.A. were in the final phases of recording their newest release in the studio, but when the call came, they loaded up the van and hit the road. Destination: New England.
JW: Day three, Dropkick Murphys tour, you didn't really expect to be on this tour, kind of happened...
ALEX B: Last minute...
JW: Last minute, couple bands dropped off, and now you guys are on the tour, how do you feel about that?
ALEX B: It's awesome. I'm just so excited, I think we're all excited. Still actually finally just trying to catch up on sleep. We had four days to drive across the country to meet up with them and every show has been awesome so far.
TAK: It's cool because this is one of our favorite bands and we used to watch them when we were little. Kind of younger, not little but you know, like ten years ago, and it's a privilege to tour with them.
JW: (with a bit of sarcasm...) And you know, they don't really put on that great a live show, they're not exciting, they don't bring out the crowds... (everyone laughs...)
But really, you know this is going to be a great show to a part of.
ALEX B: No, it's actually kind of cool. The first day of the tour, Ken (Casey of Dropkick Murphys) came up to me and he said, "yeah, y'know, I'm glad you guys finally got on the tour. We've been trying to work on it for a few years now and I'm glad we finally made it happen."
ALEX Z: It's kind of cool that they actually like us, y'know, as much...well, I don't know if it's as much as we like them. (laughter)
JW: So this is the first time you guys have gone out on the road with them?
ALEX Z: Yeah, we tried to make it happen before but there were schedule conflicts and all that stuff.
ALEX B: Probably for like four years we've been trying to make it happen.
ALEX Z: So, it worked out for everybody so we're kind of happy about that.
JW: Did you guys have anything going on before this? Were there any plans to do anything or did you drop anything?
ALEX B: We'd been in the studio since August.
TAK: And then they called us and we just dropped everything.
ALEX Z: We dropped it right before mastering the record, so we were like "OK, we got to get back to mastering s soon as we get back from the tour."
JW: So the record is just done, you just got to clean it up from here on in?
ALEX B: Actually, we were in the studio mixing it when they gave us the call. I was like, "Crap, what are we going to do?" We didn't want to pass up on the tour but we wanted to at least have some new material out. We all kind of scrambled to get stuff together and I went in the studio and mixed two songs. We have samplers at the merch table, so we could have some new stuff out for everyone to hear because that's pretty much what we've been working on for most of the year.
JW: How much notice did you have? A couple days...
ALL: (in unison) A week...a week and a half.
JW: That's not much time to kind of organize everything and then you got to drive all the way across the country. Where did you meet them at?
ALEX B: As far away from the world as possible.
JW: Close to Canada?
ALEX B: Orono, Maine
JW: So that was the first show on the tour. What was that like?
TAK: It was at a university. It was like in this indoor gymnasium and it was like huge. Like 3500 people.
JW: (again with the sarcasm) And they're y'know not real popular up there.
ALL: (in unison) No, naw, no, no...(laughter)
JW: And you know people were coming out to that one from all over. Boston, Vermont, New Hampshire...
ALEX B: The only weird part about it was because it was on a college campus, there's a zero booze policy.
JW: How'd that work out?
ALEX B: Well, it's the first time we played a show completely sober.
ALEX Z: There are ways and, ummm, things, y'know.
TAK: We have our methods....(laughter)
JW: Ways of making things happen.
TAK: Oh yeah, y'know.
ALEX Z: Exactly.
JW: So you guys are working on this new record. Do you have a working title for it?
ALEX B: Yes, it's called "Five Guns" and it should be out Spring of 2009. Like we said, as soon as we get home from this tour we're going to finish mixing it, mastering it, and getting it out.
JW: And what are you going to do? Are you going to tour on it over the summer?
ALEX B: Yeah, we plan on going back to Europe earlier next year and come back and do the U.S. in the summer.
JW: So you're planning to go to Europe after the holidays?
ALEX B: Yeah, yeah. Like February, March.
JW: Any talk of who you might be going on the U.S. tour with?
ALEX B: No, not yet.
JW: What about Europe?
ALEX B: (laughs) We don't think that far ahead.
JW: Yeah, right, we have Christmas and Thanksgiving to worry about.
ALEX B: Yeah, exactly. We got to be home by the 27th (November) otherwise all the families are going to be pissed.
JW: Ahh, for Thanksgiving. So, when's the last show on this tour?
ALEX B: The 22nd.
JW: So you have five days to get home.
ALEX B: Five days to get home from Louisville, Kentucky.
JW: And if you don't make it home, some people are going to be in the doghouse.
ALL: (laughter) Right, exactly...
JW: Where are you guys in Los Angeles? Where are you from originally?
TAK: Like Hollywood, L.A. area.
ALEX B: The valley.
ALEX Z: Same.
JW: So what would you say to get people out to the shows?
TAK: You better come out and get your ass kicked by the Dropkicks.
ALEX B: You should come out to the show because you've never seen so many good-looking dudes in a kilt before. (laughter)
TAK: Just one, Scruffy. The rest of them don't wear kilts.
ALEX B: That's right. There's just one.
JW: But by the end of the night, anything could happen.
ALEX B: This is probably the greatest rock and roll tour of the fall and something you don't want to miss.
ALEX Z: And this is the last tour of the year also.
JW: So what label is the new record going to be on?
TAK: In Europe, it's People Like You records
ALEX B: For America, it's still undecided.
TAK: We're still talking to a few labels here in the States.
ALEX Z: We dropped our label after the last record.
JW: Which was "Deadrose Junction."
ALEX Z: It was on Sailor's Grave.
TAK: They kind of folded.
ALEX Z: We kind of decided just to do this ourselves and just kind of shop around and see what happens.
TAK: Yeah, we recorded the record ourselves. Self produced, self-funded.
ALEX Z: And we're really happy about it. It came out really good.
The door opens and two more Outcasts enter the small dressing room in the upstairs of Toad's Place.
ALEX B These are our two new members. Junior and Travis.
JW: Say something to Louisville.
ALEX B: Shout out, radio station style.
TRAVIS: Ummm...LOUISVILLE!!! (the room erupts with laughter)
JUNIOR: When we come to Louisville, it's going to be a good rock show.
ALL: There you go. (laughter...fade to black.)
And with that final drop to the last city on the tour, we parted ways and The Outcasts prepared for their third night of the November tour at Toad's Place in Richmond, Virginia. I hope they had a great tour with the Dropkick Murphys and Everybody Out, but more importantly, I hope they made it home for Thanksgiving. No one needs to be in the doghouse, not even in Southern California.
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