The
door closes and Cliffy Huntington seems to have
just done it again. "This is the 'Cliff pisses
everybody off' tour," he wryly remarks, jabbing
at his own propensity to be misunderstood. He
quickly adds, "I don't mean to at all." The
rest of the Huntington clan nod and laugh along.
I ask if this happens a lot. "Well, I just say
things...like today, after the show I said something
that slagged Michigan when I didn't mean it
as a slag. (Referring to an inactive crowd in
a conversation with a fan) I said 'It's ok,
it's Sunday, it's Michigan...'"
Marty, the lead singer, chimes in: "Well, the
other night the first thing he asks this girl
(at a show) is: 'Is this going to suck?'" Adds
Cliffy: "And I totally didn't mean it that way!"
Moments
earlier had found Cliffy and crew avoiding yet
another misunderstanding by clarifying one of
the major questions regarding the band. Fans
who have gone to see them live in the past year
have probably noticed that Mikey, the bass-playing
lead vocalist, hasn't been with the band, prompting
rumors of his departure. When asked to set the
record straight regarding Mikey, Cliffy replies,
"Mikey just took time off to get some bills
paid, keep the wife happy. He's going to come
out full-time with us next year." He smiles
wickedly, leans into the tape recorder, and
jokingly yells "EVERYTHING'S FINE WITH MIKEY!
JUST SO YOU KNOW. EVERYTHING'S FINE WITH MARTY,
also just so you know."
Despite the occasional gaffes and rumors, however,
seemingly relentless touring seems to have paid
off for The Huntingtons, now in their seventh
year as a band, bringing them a reputation for
an exciting live show and building a solid fan
base throughout the country.
When asked if they've been able to sense a core
of loyal fans as they tour, Marty, who has provided
lead vocals and bass for nearly a year, replies:
"At least while I've been with the band, there's
always these four or five kids that will go
to four shows in an area." Cliffy expounds,
"Yeah, and we have three main 'centers' really,
where everybody just loves us: Anaheim, at the
Chain Reaction. Fort Wayne (Indiana)...anytime
we play in Fort Wayne. It can't be just barely
outside of Fort Wayne in Ohio, it has to be
in Fort Wayne. It can't be in someone's back
yard in Ohio, that doesn't work, it has to be
IN Fort Wayne." He almost laughs, remembering
obviously low-turnout shows. "If it's in Pensacola
(Florida), it's good, but if it's in Fort Waldebeach,
it's bad. Texas is also starting to do really
well for us...not El Paso, but the rest of Texas."
Within
a ten month period Cliffy and crew have also
played twice in New York, where the Ramones
birthed the sound the Huntingtons have proudly
carried on (to the point of recording File
Under Ramones, an entire album of Ramones
covers) two and a half decades later. What makes
those stops in NYC particularly special, however,
is the fact that Joey Ramone himself has used
the Huntingtons as his band both times. For
Cliffy, the first time was a bit more memorable.
"I'll always remember the first date. The first
day was December 17, 1999. But I won't remember
the second date, even though it was cooler.
We got to play twelve songs instead of seven
songs. (this time)We also got to play as 'The
Huntingtons.'" We start to discuss CGBG's, the
legendary venue where both shows occurred, then
someone knocks over a guitar, everyone laughs,
and we all lose our train of thought.
The last year has taken The Huntingtons not
only across America, but also throughout Europe.
Johnny's reply to a question about highlights
of the trip is blunt: "Coming home. That was
definitely a highlight, coming home." The rest
of the band laughs as he continues, "Getting
off the plane, being in America. But I enjoyed
listening to Springsteen over there because
it made me feel like I was at home." Adds Danny,
"And we met Marky Ramone. He was with the other
band we played with, I think they were called
the Suckweeds."
Not content that this is all that they remember
from Europe, I prod a little bit and Cliffy
responds. "Another highlight would be that a
kid died at one of our shows. Not a happy highlight,
but it was still one of those things that we'll
never forget. Another not good highlight was
the fact that we got fed bread as meals every
day. Just bread. It was good bread, but it got
to be not fun to eat after like, five days.
Honestly, it was really exciting to see how
many people over there were already into the
band, and liked the band, and that was really
really cool."
The band's banter seems to pick up when I ask
which shows stood out in particular. They seem
to all agree that the Rotterdam (Holland) show
and all the performances in Italy went very
well. Danny looks at me mischievously and adds
"That show where I sang was good."
Cliffy shoots me an almost convincing look of
agreement and says "Yeah!" enthusiastically,
then suddenly laughs and changes his mind. "Er....no,
that wasn't really good, that was horrible."
He turns and explains. "Did you hear about that?
We all switched places and Mikey played drums
and he (Danny) was the singer for this one show.
They (the crowd) were ripping on us. People
got all mad and said we ripped them off."
The truth finally out, Danny brings up an even
more memorable show. "There was that one show
where we played outside on the top of a hill
and there were all the dogs in the moshpit,
biting everybody and everybody was drunk."
The
tour stories were start to die down, so we turn
our focus to what gets The Huntingtons on the
road in the first place; their music. Their
staple sound has always been built around a
tight imitation of The Ramones; not so much
a ripoff as much as an acknowledged tribute,
one that has even resulted in an entire album
of Ramones covers. According to Cliffy, most
diehard Ramones fans have accepted and welcomed
them. "From what I've heard, either myself or
through emails or messageboard type things,
way more like it and are just glad that there's
another band that at least for a while, was
doing the same thing. There's a few that would
just like, rather listen to the Ramones. Honestly,
though, it's not really very many. Some people
like it, some people don't."
The last couple of albums, Get Lost and
Plastic Surgery, however, have seen a
bit of a shift in sound. When asked if this
was a conscious decision by the band or just
a natural evolution in their music, Cliffy was
sure to give an honest explanation. "Get
Lost and Plastic Surgery were a conscious
decision to do that because we had just done
File Under Ramones and we wanted to make
the next original album that we did sound like,
in our minds, almost as if there was a new Ramones
album coming out. We didn't really get there,
but we got close to it, I think. The reason
there's two of them, Get Lost and Plastic
Surgery, is because Tooth and Nail wanted
us to record two albums at once, so then they
both ended up sounding like that. Our next album
will be very much a revert back to the High
School Rock type sound....both thematically
and energy-wise, vocally, it's going to be very
much like High School Rock."
Fans
didn't seem to rush out and buy either Get
Lost or Plastic Surgery; in
fact, fan reaction to both albums has been less
than wonderful compared to the older material
bearing the Huntingtons logo. Some of this may
be due to the newer sound, but the band believes
that a good deal of the problem has been a mix
of apathy and just plain not knowing about it.
"No one has it," says Cliffy with a half grimace,
half smile. "Both were released when Tooth and
Nail was um....getting rid of Caroline and whatever
their Christian Distribution was at the time
(Sonic Fuel). Both those distribution companies
knew that they were finishing up with t&n, and
they weren't putting much of an effort into
it. Now beginning with the newest Slick Shoes
record (Wake Up Screaming) midway through
this year, it became EMI and Chordant (distribution),
which are both very good, very powerful, very
strong. All the bands' records that have come
out since the Slick Shoes album, the records
have been out there a lot. You look at Starflyer59,
any of the bands that had albums released anytime
from last summer til when Slick Shoes came out,
the sales were just drastically down from any
of their previous efforts, regardless of who
the band was. We suffered as well. So a lot
of kids don't have those records; some do, a
good amount do...a lot don't. Also now, you're
looking at kids listening (to our older material)...so
many people have had the chance to buy the live
record (The Good, The Band, and The Ugly)
and High School Rock over the last three
years and so it's no wonder why those songs
are going to be more popular."
With other bands like Green Day, Blink 182,
and MxPx finding more mainstream success, one
might wonder if the popularity of some new school
punk rock bands has trickled down to the not-so-accessible
but just as catchy Huntingtons. According to
Cliffy, it hasn't. "It hasn't done jack for
us. If The Ramones were all over the radio,
if Screeching Weasel was all over the radio,
if The Queers were all over the radio, then
it would affect us. It affected what the band
was before we were The Huntingtons in '94 when
Green Day was all over the radio and people
would come see us; it was very much like when
ska lasted two or three years, where it didn't
matter if you were good or not, the kids were
gonna be into it and it had nothing to do with
the band. That's where we were in like, '94.
In '96 that was all gone, we had to start working
on just being a good band, which is what we've
done since then. But no, what's on the radio
has nothing to do with any of our shows. We
wish it did, but no."
Within
a ten month period Cliffy and crew have also
played twice in New York, where the Ramones
birthed the sound the Huntingtons have proudly
carried on (to the point of recording File
Under Ramones, an entire album of Ramones
covers) two and a half decades later. What makes
those stops in NYC particularly special, however,
is the fact that Joey Ramone himself has used
the Huntingtons as his band both times. For
Cliffy, the first time was a bit more memorable.
"I'll always remember the first date. The first
day was December 17, 1999. But I won't remember
the second date, even though it was cooler.
We got to play twelve songs instead of seven
songs. (this time)We also got to play as 'The
Huntingtons.'" We start to discuss CGBG's, the
legendary venue where both shows occurred, then
someone knocks over a guitar, everyone laughs,
and we all lose our train of thought. 
The
tour stories were start to die down, so we turn
our focus to what gets The Huntingtons on the
road in the first place; their music. Their
staple sound has always been built around a
tight imitation of The Ramones; not so much
a ripoff as much as an acknowledged tribute,
one that has even resulted in an entire album
of Ramones covers. According to Cliffy, most
diehard Ramones fans have accepted and welcomed
them. "From what I've heard, either myself or
through emails or messageboard type things,
way more like it and are just glad that there's
another band that at least for a while, was
doing the same thing. There's a few that would
just like, rather listen to the Ramones. Honestly,
though, it's not really very many. Some people
like it, some people don't." 
Fans
didn't seem to rush out and buy either Get
Lost or Plastic Surgery; in
fact, fan reaction to both albums has been less
than wonderful compared to the older material
bearing the Huntingtons logo. Some of this may
be due to the newer sound, but the band believes
that a good deal of the problem has been a mix
of apathy and just plain not knowing about it.
"No one has it," says Cliffy with a half grimace,
half smile. "Both were released when Tooth and
Nail was um....getting rid of Caroline and whatever
their Christian Distribution was at the time
(Sonic Fuel). Both those distribution companies
knew that they were finishing up with t&n, and
they weren't putting much of an effort into
it. Now beginning with the newest Slick Shoes
record (Wake Up Screaming) midway through
this year, it became EMI and Chordant (distribution),
which are both very good, very powerful, very
strong. All the bands' records that have come
out since the Slick Shoes album, the records
have been out there a lot. You look at Starflyer59,
any of the bands that had albums released anytime
from last summer til when Slick Shoes came out,
the sales were just drastically down from any
of their previous efforts, regardless of who
the band was. We suffered as well. So a lot
of kids don't have those records; some do, a
good amount do...a lot don't. Also now, you're
looking at kids listening (to our older material)...so
many people have had the chance to buy the live
record (The Good, The Band, and The Ugly)
and High School Rock over the last three
years and so it's no wonder why those songs
are going to be more popular."