Indy In-Tune

Show #084: Precore

All these interviews are different. Thank God, or I'd have gone nuts years ago. Before we record a show, I usually take a few minutes and prep the band for what to expect. I explain to them that I like to keep the show natural, less question-and-answer from me, more talking and storytelling from them. The idea has always been to make the show feel like just a candid conversation in a bar or coffee shop while playing some music in the background, and not so much sitting down at an interview desk being grilled for information. Usually bands just sort of say, "Cool," and then get all tense leaving me to grill them with question-and-answer time for 10 or 15 minutes before they finally get in the grove. Mike and Joe just ordered shots and said, "Let's do this." That should have been my first warning. What followed was a one-hour conversation that pretty much covered everything but the music ... GoBots versus Transformers, deep-seated maternal issues, Chicago burger joints, towns to avoid in rural Michigan, and how to impress women with selected clothing from the Army/Navy surplus store. In all seriousness, these are the kinds of episodes I love to do.

That said, this is one of those interviews that is definitely not work safe, kid safe, high church-official safe, or for anybody who is easily offended by off-color language, lewd stories of things musicians do while on tour, or other explicit and suggestive content. Consider this your warning. I don't censor, and I'm not your babysitter.

Precore is an up and coming band originally founded in the "upper northwest" and relocated to the heartland of Indianapolis. One can go on for hours trying to analyze the sound and its constituent parts, but suffice to say, this is straight-up, balls-out hard rock made without apologies or compromise -- the way rock and roll should be. With radio play all over the country, a nation-wide tour in the bag, two albums under the belt and a third on the way (the later two produced by Steve Albini of Nirvana, Chevelle, Iggy Pop, Page and Plant, Scott Weiland, and Bush fame), it seems as if this band has pretty much gotten it all figured out and is just waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.

Links referenced in the show:

• Precore can be found here: Web Site | Facebook | MySpace | YouTube | Twitter.
• Their latest CD, Sick, is available here (iTunes | Amazon).
• It was recorded by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago and will be mixed at The Lodge here in Indy.
• Bassist Jon Kuykendall is a follower of the great Victor Wooten.
• Parents, remember: Transformers=cool; GoBots, particularly Scooter, not so much.
• Though we couldn't remember his name at the time, Arnel Pineda is the new lead singer of Journey.
• The band is currently signed with Dirtbag Music Records.
• This is the picture that arrived on Mike's cell phone at 31:07 into the show. (This also part of the aforementioned "avoid if easily offended" part.)
• ... and this one at 32:06.
• When in chicago, Precore likes to dine at Kuma's Corner, as featured on the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives."
• When in Michigan in a month that has an "R" in the name, avoid Sebewaing.
• Precore officially endorses SilverFox drum sticks, Evans drum heads, Saluda symbols, and Audix microphones and monitors.

Currently Listening To:
	Precore: Sick Click Image for Details Click Here for More Essential Listening

Darrin Snider is the OCD music nerd responsible for creating Indy In-Tune. By day he's a cloud engineer and business analyst, but he still hopes to someday be an overnight freeform disc jockey married to the local weathergirl who happens to be a former eastern-European supermodel.