Why must it be so hot? This is what I ask Cudahy as I linger outside The Very Famous X-Ray Arcade, sweating through my ’90s Brewer cap, eagerly awaiting passage into the A/C paradise. It’s 11:30 a.m. on a Sunday, and I’m ready to attend the church of post-rock. After a brief, friendly conversation with the morning bartender in the sun, Devils Teeth drummer Chuck Engel invites me in to meet the band prior to their show with Key of Evil – two ascending punk bands opening for Wisconsin post-hardcore legends Giants Chair.
Devils Teeth: Armed with “Alarmingly Fleshed-Out Ideas”
Milwaukee’s Devils Teeth have cut a musical evolution from abducted Chuck Berry riffs over wrestling storylines, to a fictional spaghetti western soundtrack with cicada accompaniment, to a rave-up of guitar and horn-driven sorcery that would make The Cramps flash an evil grin. Their most recent release, The Key of Dickie G, is pure party music. But don’t let their name fool you – Devils Teeth flash a smile here and there and fully endorse having a great time at their shows. We met before their Sunday show, seated together around their merch table.
Lead vocalist and guitarist Jon Hanusa provides Devils Teeth with riffs and, according to bassist Jeff Brueggeman, “alarmingly fleshed-out ideas” that the band, along with drummer Chuck Engel and saxophonist Caleb Westphal, carve into fully realized songs. “We play music known as garage punk, but we bring in the spaghetti western, something a bit jazzier, with movie soundtrack vibes, but it all works together,” Hanusa explains.
Drummer Chuck Engel adds: “More tangibly, I think our songs are moving in more directions, bringing some elements of surf back into it.” Engel mentions that an informed listener compares Devils Teeth favorably to the seminal West Coast punk band Rockets from the Crypt.
Proving bands sprout from diverse gardens of youth, Devils Teeth’s members grew up digging everything from The Blue Brothers, MxPx, Eddie Rabbit and Michael Jackson. Brueggeman recalls his breakthrough moment when his taste morphed from classic rock to proper punk: “We had a 5-tape Beach Boys box set, and I wore them out. Then I saw [punk band] All at Summerfest around 2000. There was a tornado warning, the power was cut, but they kept playing. A girl peed under a tarp because she didn’t want to lose her spot. I thought: This is a world that I find myself interested in.”
Devils Teeth’s inspiration continues to come from all angles. “Sakuraba”, a rocker from their album Suki Taki, according to Hanusa, was inspired by a Japanese fighter in the Pride Fighting Championship “known for getting the absolute shit kicked out of him but keeps getting back up. The song’s a metaphor for a guy who keeps getting his heart broken over and over again.”
Bassist Brueggeman is “obsessed with a book called The Wager, about a shipwreck around Cape Horn. There was cannibalism, and the English sailors turned away help from the native people. It’s interesting to see the struggles of people, and how people deal with insanity.” Drummer Engel is rocking to Madison’s Heather the Jerk and expanding his musical parameters with “60 Songs That Explain the ’90s”. And Westphal is keeping his sax life fresh by frequenting the East Side’s Jazz Estate and brushing up on Blue Note history while he spends time with his newborn daughter.
What’s Next for Devils Teeth?
Hanusa: “We have a new selection of songs. New songs are always the most fun. We’re looking forward to recording it, just the natural evolution of our abilities and songwriting … after that, I have a whole new concept. Total blown-out concept idea, with 25-page treatment and visual reference for everyone.”
Devils Teeth’s Set: Full Speed Ahead
Rarely does a band hit a stage this early on Sunday with such searing momentum and conviction. Note to whomever wins the auction for Deep Thought: On her maiden voyage post-recovery, hire Devils Teeth for the christening. Sure, frontman John Hanusa sports a captain’s cap, but the point is the band launched with power, confidence and big party energy. Sax man Westphal leaned invitingly toward the crowd with each blast, transformed behind shades and a headband few brass instrumentalists could pull off. Haunusa, Westphal and bassist Brueggeman riffed in sync, bringing the crowd to life on the Sabbath with ripping tunes from their diverse three-album catalog.
Speaking of deep thoughts, I decided to answer an overheard reflection among those milling near the bar during Devils Teeth’s set: “I wasn’t expecting saxophone…”, to which I replied “Well, you got it, and it works for me.” Judging from the crowd bopping ever closer to the stage, everything Devils Teeth threw down was working on this hotter than hell Sunday afternoon.
Key of Evil Unlock Hardcore Peace & Love
One suspects they’re in for an unusual experience when a two-person band’s lineup is listed as such: “Greg on bass and electronicals, Dan on drums and noise pollution.” Oh, and just in case that didn’t make your ears perk up, how about their first single’s title: “The Unknowing Recognition of Taxable Puppets”? That song, along with its fuzzily ominous vibe absolutely begs for an incendiary video, perhaps the folks at Spitting Image could reprise their brand of grotesque political pop-culture satire? Key of Evil promises a “mathy, noisy, post-rock experience” and before I heard them deliver on such promises, we spoke beneath the eaves in a slim pocket of shade on the back porch patio of the X-Ray Arcade.
Greg Roteik is the main vocalist and lead bassist for the two-man group, and he’s been known to listen to his voice after recording a song and say, with some surprise: “Whenever I hear the vocals, I’m like, ‘That guy’s angry.’” I ask Greg if it’s difficult to conjure that angry guy.
“Not at all,” Roteik says. “I don’t think of myself as a lyricist or wordsmith, but it comes really fast. It just comes easy when I’m in that moment. I will give you that one take.”
That one take on “The Unknowing Recognition of Taxable Puppets” brings a feast of fury along with thoughtful takes that evolved from a strained relationship. Roteik explains: “I started to write about a girl that broke my heart years ago, then it sort of got political, and it became a mashup of the two.”
At this point, drummer Dan Lutes intervenes from the lessening shade: “It’s self-administered therapy.” Roteik laughs and nods knowingly, and the dynamic in Key of Evil is evident: These two guys care about each other and they love to play loud, messy songs that work for each other, the Milwaukee music scene and for their audience.
Roteik says his immersion in the Milwaukee music scene is critical to his evolution as a bassist and lyricist. “I play a lot of bass for a lot of different people. I’m immersed in a lot of projects, constantly wrapping my head around other projects.”
So how do two guys end up in a mathy, noise-pollution two-piece assault such as Key of Evil? By way of Phil Collins, of course. OK, not exactly, but let’s just say the way people are inspired to create music is decidedly more diverse than one might suspect.
Lutes shares his earliest music memories: “My dad was a classic rock guy and he played guitar. We’d jam to Zeppelin and The Doors in the living room. He was cool with having a little kid who was the house drummer…My first record was Genesis’ Invisible Touch. I loved Phil Collins’ drumming. Then I got into Rush, Primus, Sonic Youth, Jesus Lizard – there’s this world of such cool music!”
Roteik reminds us that you never know what show might inspire you to join the fight. “Fugazi was the first show that turned me on to, ‘Shit, we can do this ourselves!’”
Key of Evil’s Set: Unholy Ignition
The same guys talking Phil Collins explode into their set, igniting the innocent village of concertgoers in a relentless blitz of feedback, growl and snare. How two humans manage to make this unholy ignition is beyond me, and beyond me is a good place to be. The songs come fast and furious, with tasty interplay between Roteik’s fuzzy, one-man assault bass lines and Lutes’ astute fills, all echoing in glorious ricochet among the X-Ray crowd. Key of Evil left no doubt that two men can merge jazz, post-rock and a host of influences from punk to reggae and outlaw country into something truly devastating.
What’s Next for Key of Evil?
Roteik is excited for the evolution of Key of Evil’s sound: “We’re still in the process of recording an album. We’re adding other elements, some Hammond organ, saxophone and flute. It’s kinda crazy. We’re currently trying to make it happen.”
Don’t let the names of either Devils Teeth or Key of Evil fool you … these are bands doing good work for Milwaukee, for the pantheon of punk and most importantly, for themselves.
