The Swingin' Utters are one of those bands that can "change the game" for someone, so to speak. Especially if you have an affinity for punk rock, their albums are easy to pick up and enjoy since they are, in essence, a street punk band. But the Swingin' Utters have been doing much more than just street punk, and have been able to incorporate Americana sounds into their songs with such ease and efficiency, that even the most stubborn punk find him (or herself) caught listening to, and thoroughly enjoying, a country tune when that wasn't their intention. After that, all it takes is paying the slightest bit of attention to the words, and this enjoyment easily becomes an immersion. Suddenly, a whole new genre of music opens to the listener. Bands like these are few and far in between and it's the reason that almost ten years after discovering them I'm still finding something new to enjoy in their albums.
Trips to the East Coast don't happen very often for these guys, and when I heard that they were playing Philadelphia (and at the North Star Bar no less!), I (Ollie Mikse knew it would take some sort of divine intervention to stop me from being there. Adding to the experience was my chance to chat with a pensive and serious Swingin' Utters before their set, and a much more loose (and slightly inebriated) version afterward.
The Swinginâ Utters consist of Johnny Bonnel (vocals), Darius Koski (Guitar/Vocals), Spike Slawson (Bass), Jack Dalrymple (guitar), and Greg McEntee (drums), and released a long awaited b-sides collection Hatest Grits: B-Sides and Bullshit last year. Their last proper studio effort was Dead Flowers, Bottles, Bluegrass and Bones in 2003. Interview by Ollie Mike, photos by Steve Garcia.
I looked into you guysâ gig history and I canât remember the last time you guys were in Philly or the east coast in general.
Koski: Five or six years ago.
Any fun stories from that tour?
Bonnel: The trailer broke down.
Koski: Yeah, our trailer broke down on a Sunday in New York City, which sucked, but itâs not funny.
Howâs the tour so far gone?
Bonnel: Pretty smoothly so far.
I hear the show yesterday in Long Island wasnât the smoothest show 
Koski: Not our crowd.
Bonnel: It wasnât horrible. We didnât get booed.
The new Hatest Grits album is the first thing youâve put out in five years, and I know that you guys have been very busy with a lot of other projects. Did it feel like the Swinginâ Utters stopped becoming a band during that break?
Koski: Yeah, weâve definitely gone through periods like that before, but this was definitely the biggest one. I mean, we never really stopped playing. Weâve been doing a lot of stuff thatâs almost entirely West Coast stuff; California stuff. But weâve still been paying pretty regularly this whole time. We just havenât really left California [Laughs]. I would like to be on the East Coast, like maybe once a year, but weâll see what happens.
Your last album, Dead Flowers, Bottles, Bluegrass and Bones was the first release you had without any contribution from Max Huber. Can you guys talk a little about why he left, and what your reaction was to him leaving?
Bonnel: He was kind of over it. He gradually took himself out of the picture, because he was going in a different direction musically. It was nothing against us as people. I sort of saw it comingâ¦
Koski: It wasnât a shock. He seemed to be kind of over it. It wasnât that he wasnât into what we do as much as he wanted to do different stuff, which is funny because heâs not playing music anymore.
After Dead Flowers, you guys put out the live album, which kind of caught you guys in transition, because it was right after Max left. Was it difficult to fill his shoes on such short notice?
Bonnel: Yeah!
Koski: We completed the record without him. We didnât have tryouts, because it sounds so fucking pretentious, but we should have. The guy we chose for a while didnât work out.
Did that backfire a little, because you guys were finally doing a live album, and Max had just left?
Koski: It kind of sucked. Basically what happened is that we always wanted Jack to be in our band. We were good friends with One Man Army, and they were still together. I didnât want to steal Jack! I donât want to break up his band, but he was getting over One Man Army. I knew they were gonna be done soon, so we grabbed him the first chance we got, and it was right after that. I honestly think that weâre better now than we ever have been.
I also heard that one of the reasons Max left was because you guys wanted to make a different album than he wanted, which is what you were talking about.
Koski: He had some songs thatâ¦
Bonnel: That we just werenât into, it was more Rock âNâ Roll, and he wanted to sing all the songsâ¦
In an interview I saw with you guys, it won out unanimously with the band that the Selftitled was the least favorite. Nine years later, is that feeling still the same?
Koski: I love that album! Iâm the only one in the band who likes that record! I donât think any of them like it very much.
Darius, you mentioned how surprised you are when you listen to your older albums at how slow you sound. Dead Flowers is the probably the fastest thing you guys have put out.
Koski: Itâs too fast. Thatâs one of the things that all of us donât like about it.
Bonnel: But, we also have Shadows and Liesâ¦
Koski: No, I know. But the general speed of the songs? Itâs was too fast, and thatâs my fucking fault. Some of it was supposed to be fast, but some of the songs were fucking totally destroyed because theyâre way too fast.
Itâs also a lot dirtier sounding.
Koski: It was a production thing. As a whole, I like the album a lot.
You guys did a lot of Cocksparrer covers which were a big influence on the band, but you guys also have a slower, different sounding output. What bands inspire that side of the band?
Bonnel: Elliott Smithâ¦
Koski: And Elvis Costello, the Pogues, mostly older stuff really.
Bonnel: Thereâs too many bandsâ¦
You guys put out Hatest Grits, a collection of B-Sides, last year. Was that something you guys had been meaning to put out for a while?
Koski: Yeah, we mentioned it to Fat Mike before Dead Flowers. We had been talking about it for a long time, but then we forgot about it. Then he brought it back up and we said, âFuck yeah!"
Speaking of that, what are some of the songs on Hatest Grits that you guys are most happy to have more easily available to fans? I love the Fat Club songs.
Bonnel: The Fat Club, yeah!
Koski: Two of my favorite Johnny songs are on it that didnât make the records: Annual Pimple and No Grooves in Gunfights.
Now that the Swinginâ Utters have Spike Slawson and Jack Dalrymple, you guys are becoming a punk supergroup.
Koski: Show me the money!
Slawson: No no no! You donât get to damage us with that label until we start making supergroup money!
Do you think of yourselves as the Velvet Revolver or Traveling Wilburys of punk bands?
Koski: Weâre the Velvet Revolver of punk bands, absolutely. Iâm like Scott Weeland, or Weiland.
I read that there was going to be a documentary on you guys that was filmed while you guys were on tour. What happened to that?
Bonnel: I donât remember thatâ¦
Something about Maxâs friend doing itâ¦
Koski: Oh yeah! I think he wanted to go on tour with us and do it, but he never did.
You guys are in a plethora of other bands. Do you consider the Swinginâ Utters to be your main band?
Dalrymple: Yep.
Bonnel: Yep.
Koski: Yep! I donât know about Spike there because heâs in a cover band.
Johnny, youâre also in Filthy Thieving Bastards. Youâre contributing a lot more to songs in your other bands than in the Utters. Do you feel like your songs fit more with those other bands?
Bonnel: I sort of made a weird decision that I would let Darius and Max take over the songwriting, and do all my writing with The Filthy Thieving Bastards and Druglords and Avenues, because I know these songs will be accepted in a band where we have a lot more freedom.
Koski: We went into the Filthy Thieving Bastards with the idea that we could do whatever the fuck we wanted. That band can be anything. Complete total freedom.
Spike, you joined the band in â98â¦
Slawson: â¦
Loud sound from the stage: "Hey, whatâs going on Philly!"
[Laughs all around]
Editorâs note: At this point it became so loud that we decided to continue the interview after the Swinginâ Uttersâ set. One Hour Later⦠I heard you guys are working on a new record. Is that true? 
Koski: I have a bunch of songs, Johnny has a bunch of songs, Jack has a bunch of songs. Weâre not working on them per se right now, but weâre going to find time in July to record. Thatâs the plan, but who knows.
Any hints of how the album is turning out? Aggressive, or folkier?
Koski: Last time, I was dead set on really hard songs. Like, No Pariah for us is super hard. This time, whatever comes out and whatever is good.
Jack, you mentioned in a Razorcake interview that the Swinginâ Utters made you want to start One Man Army.
Dalrymple: This is true!
Is it weird now that youâre playing in the Swinginâ Utters?
Dalrymple: Itâs really really fun that I get to play these songs.
Koski: Yeah, but is it weird? That was the question!
[Laughs all around]
Dalrymple: No, itâs not weird at all. I love it!
Koski: Weâve been friends with him for a long time, and we toured with him, and Iâve wanted him to be in the band since forever.
Jack, do you think youâre going to be contributing at all to the new album?
Dalrymple: I donât know.
Koski: Iâm going to be insisting on it! Iâve actually been saying that I really really REALLY want to do a One Man Army cover, and he wonât fucking do it!
Dalrymple: Nope!
Koski: You donât even have to fucking sing! Johnny will sing, which is fucking stupid because Jack has the raddest voice!
Dalrymple: True.
Well, you probably get requests in Dead to Me to do One Man Army songs.
Dalrymple: Yeah, but I only do one or two.
Koski: See? You do it in that band! What a fucking dick!
Dalrymple: Well you guys alreadyâ¦
Koski: âCause youâre such a fucking dick! Put that on record: Jack is a DICK!
In the same interview Jack talks about how comfortable he is with his nudity.
Koski: Thatâs not Jack!
You and Chicken were talking about how comfortable you are with nudity.
Dalrymple: Chicken!
Koski: I could pull my pants down right now.
So you guys havenât been exposed to any unwanted nudity by Jack?
Koski: Iâve never seen Jackâs dick.
Dalrymple: And, Iâve been warned not to sleep next to Darius.
Koski: Iâm a nightcrawler, yeah!
On the subject of nudity, explain the origin of the name The Natural.
Koski: Uhhhâ¦
Dalrymple: âCause he has a big dick!
Koski: I do actually! We took this accordion on tour and Spike just randomly started referring to it as my fleshy colored instrument. He really was into that, and every time I took it out, he was like, "Hereâs the fleshy colored instrument that heâs going to strap on." Then, we always had this joke, where we thought it would be funny if we went to this sex shop and got a huge dildo and put it in somebodyâs bag at the airport. So, we always talked about that for years. We decided that when Iâd get my fleshy colored instrument, that Iâd open up my accordion case and pull out this huge dildo, so we actually did go to sex shop and bought one. It was fucking ridiculously huge! It was eighteen inches. And, the dildoâs called the Natural. We threw it in the crowd in Austin, and people kept throwing it back to me, because theyâre disgusted by it. Itâs gross! And this girl came on stage and REALLY wanted it.
Are there any songs that you guys love that you donât play live?
Dalrymple: Brazen Head.
Koski: I like a lot of the more mellow ones like My Glass House and Watching the Wayfarers, or Shadows and Lies, which weâre never going to play live. Thatâs never going to happen.
In the Filthy Thieving Bastards, you guys have a song called Like Jack Dalrymple, where it says, "Be like Jack Dalrymple, and keep things kind of simple." What does that mean?
Koski: God damn it, Johnny should be here! You should ask Johnny that because I really donât know!
Dalrymple: And I donât smoke bake potatoes or smoke any blunts.
Koski: Thatâs right! Jack was a big time smoker.
What are some of your favorite albums youâve been listening to lately, or some of your favorite albums out this year?
Dalrymple: Ooohâ¦
Koski: Honestly, I canât tell you anything. I listen to a lot of dorky shit like Amy Winehouse and Lilly Allen.
Last album you guys bought?
Dalrymple: Magnetic Fieldâs 69 Love Songs.
Koski: I honestly donât know the last album I bought. I got the new Breeders album, âcause the last one was fucking really bad, like a drug record. Unlistenable. But, the new one was pretty good!
Thatâs it, guys. Thanks!