Rocket From The Crypt: X-ray Specs.

Rocket From The Crypt play Livid at the RNA Showgrounds on October 12 and the Troccadero, Surfers Paradise on October 13

Thirteen long years have passed since those San Diegan bad apples Rocket From The Crypt first united to continue the battle for truth, justice and powerful liver damage. Rocket From The Crypt are without a doubt one of the finest rock’n’roll acts stalking the face of the planet. But right now, bassist extraordinaire Petey X is recovering from the San Diego surf, kicking back watching Survivor Thailand. Really.

“Do you want me to tell you who gets voted off? That way you can ruin it for your friends,” he chuckles. “I’m actually waiting for the new series of Friends. I have satellite TV, so I can watch it an hour earlier from the East coast. Now I get all the good stuff, and call my friends in the middle of the show and go, ‘did you hear what Joey did?’ and then I ruin it for them and ruin their whole night. That’s how I have my fun.”

Because Petey has tuned in to Survivor, I ask who would win if the band we’re marooned together on the island.

“Ummm, that’s a tough one. I think I would. I don’t know, it would be a toss up… nah, it would be me.”

Does it all come down to cunning and wit, or are you just the most amiable member of the band? Will everyone just get along with you?

“That’s certainly not the case,” he laughs. “It’s wit and cunning and someone who can survive in the environment, and I think I could to that.”

Where would you most like to go?

“I don’t know. They’ve already done all the good places. Maybe somewhere like Tijuana. They just leave you in the streets with no money, and you’ve got to find your little idol. They’d have really good contests like bribing the police to get out of jail…”

Still true to the punk DIY ethos of the band’s early days, this ever vigilant six piece rock machine last graced out shores back in January 1999, when they joined forces with legendary Seattle grunge godfathers Mudhoney. Their upcoming tour is long overdue, and for audiences may well be in for the rock’n’roll experience of the year. Mudhoney, unfortunately, couldn’t make it.

“We blow those guys away,” Rocket’s bassist Petey X laughs. “They’re all old men. They couldn’t even keep up with us on tour. It was sad. They were going to bed early every night and sleeping in late, but we were raring to go all the time.”

There’s an old jazz adage referring to the genre as a group of people al playing a different song at the same time. Take a good listen to a Rocket From The Crypt track, and wonder how much music can six people pour into a tune. At times, there’s so much music competing for a share of your attention the band sounds on the verge of sonic collapse. Yet somehow they hold things together, and sound like a monster for their troubles.

“I think it’s a big Phil Spector influence, the whole wall of sound with as much as you can get in there. It doesn’t have to be twenty different instruments, it can be twenty different guitar tracks. I think we’ve tried every side of it. When you’re recording you have so many avenues to express yourself that you’ve got to try everything you can without turning the sound into total mud.”

Rocket’s about to be released Live From Camp X Ray is about as far removed from a watered down dirt as you’re ever likely to find. As you’ll quickly discover, Live From Camp X Ray is neither live, nor broadcast from that now notorious plot of Cuban real estate. It is however packed full of nitro fuelled snazz as only Rocket From The Crypt know how. From the stomping rawk of the album’s opener I’m Not Invisible to the slick brassy production of I Wanna Know What I Wanna Know to the straight ahead blast of Dumb Blind Horny, Rocket serve up as focussed and direct and outing as you’re likely to hear this side of Slayer’s legendary Reign In Blood.

“It was just something we though the title sounded pretty cool. People will figure it out very quickly. Of course, not being live it’s not actually from anywhere. It was just something we though was cool.”

When did you put it all together? It doesn’t seem like that long since Group Sounds was released here in Australia.

“We just finished recording a month and a half ago. We turned it around really quickly, and we’re rushing to have it out in October. The last one came out in March 2001, so about a year and a half ago. You guys got it very late there, because we had a lot of trouble finding other means of getting the album out around the world.”

The trials and tribulations of record labels…

“I think all major labels are pretty much the same. It’s just about big business, which is bad for the music industry. But how can you change that. You can have small labels, but once they start to make some money they change too. It’s a tough one. Perhaps you could put a selling cap on every record, like you can only sell 13000 copies, and then you just have to burn it off your friend and swap it around. That way no one makes too much money, because we’re all selling the same amount of records. It all still sucks.”

Is your passion for music still the same as it was when Rocket started out?

“Definitely. We’re still doing it for the exact same reasons we’ve always done it.”

After all, you can’t spell Rocket without Rock!