Blabbers

KJHK 90.7 FM - Lawrence, KS - May 1981

KJHK:  You're all from around Bloomington, or go to school there, or what's the deal there?
Tim:  Uh... Mostly we just...
Emily:  We mostly work there... in Indiana. 
Michael:  Yeah. We met... Some of us met there, and some of us have known each other for a l-o-n-g time.
Tim:  Like for ten years or so, a few have been acquainted.
KJHK:  Have you been... Have some of you been in other bands before this? And this...
Emily:  Oh, yeah...
KJHK:  Is this your latest...
Emily:  That's... Well...
Tim:  Yeah. A couple of the bands that preceded this one were, uh... The New York Liars was one group that John was in.
KJHK:  Out of Bloomington?
Tim:  Yeah. And, uh...
Michael:  Barn Boys.
Tim:  The Barn Boys.
Don:  The Barn Boys.
Emily:  The famous... You know, on-going...
Tim:  Right. The Barn Boys are...
Don:  Off and on when they can get a gig.
Tim:  Right. And then there was also another band called The Unmitigated Gall Band that a couple of the members were involved with for a while.
KJHK:  So what inspired you to form this band? The Dancing Cigarettes. 
Emily:  We like each other.
Michael:  Nobody else was doing it.
KJHK:  Doing what?
Michael:  Doing what we do. (Dancing Cigarettes Discography) 

WBWB 97 FM - Bloomington, IN - May 1981

Tim:  One important aspect of our music is the dissonance involved that's... that is very intentional... outside of us, like, being out of tune.
Michael:  Also the time signatures... Sometimes one person will be playing, like, in one time signature, and someone else will be playing in a different time signature, and, uh... I don't know that we... We don't worry about keys that much. And, so... Someone will, like, just jump on their instrument, jump on the notes, and when they go together, they do. We have a pretty broad idea of what goes together and what sounds good together.
John:  "Broken Windows" is a good example of how we took, like, a very basic guitar line and organ part and... and just built on that, developing this very strong rhythm force. Kind of, like, changing the original concept of the song totally within one or two practices. And just turning it into...
Emily:  A monster.
John:  Yeah. The monster that it is.

KJHK 90.7 FM - Lawrence, KS - May 1981

KJHK:  Do you have any particular bands that you particularly like that you might see as a possible influence on the type of music that you do?
Tim:  Uh... I'd say Captain Beefheart... the Velvet Underground...
Michael:  Antonin Artaud. He's not a band, but he's quite a man.
KJHK:  (laughs)
Tim:  Maybe The Kinks... early, early Kinks.
Don:  The Three Stooges.
Tim:  (laughs) Three Stooges.
Don:  J.R. "Bob" Dobbs. (SubGenius) 
KJHK:  Have you ever heard of a band called Orchestra Luna?
Michael:  Uh... No.
Don:  (laughs) Good question, though.
Michael:  (laughs) That's a good question.
KJHK:  Is your live show all originals? Do you do any covers at all?
Tim:  No. It's no wave, punk rock, mental jazz. 
KJHK:  That's always nice.
Tim:  We have done a couple covers. One of 'em was a DNA song.
KJHK:  So not exactly the, you know, your widespread Elvis Costello cover.
Michael:  No. Uh-uh.

WBWB 97 FM - Bloomington, IN - May 1981

John:  That's one thing about the group that, like, since we didn't have a lot of background in musical training, it's... It is kind of a real spontaneous... combustion that, uh... (laughs)
WBWB:  Well, maybe that's... What you should do is put down all these American pop instruments, like electric guitars, and get some African balaphones that you don't know a thing about...
Emily:  (excitedly) Yeah. Yeah.
Michael:  (laughs)
WBWB:  And see what happens.
John:  That's a good idea, really. See, we necessarily didn't have any previous experience with the modern instruments that we play now.
WBWB:  Uh-huh.
John:  That's why we play 'em the way that we do.
Michael:  Perhaps we could try something different. Yeah. When we play our instruments, we just want to GO GO GO, you know. And, like, the problem is...
John:  (laughs)
Michael:  The problem is not... not coming up with material. The problem is, like, limiting our material... you know, condensing it down because I think if we were in a room with our instruments, we could write, you know, too many songs. We just want to GO.