It’s slightly disconcerting to know that there are aliens living amongst us in human form, although the nerves are calmed by the knowledge that, rather than attempting to take over or destroy us, they’ve settled in Detroit and are playing surf-rock music.
That’s the official story of the Amino Acids, and who are we to argue? The intergalactic instrumental rock band is playing three shows this weekend although, rather confusingly, two of them are at the same time in different venues on Saturday night. Exactly how they’re pulling that off will be revealed shortly.
The members of the Amino Acids don’t converse with humans. Whether that’s because they can’t or they won’t is unknown, but we at MMX are ingenious people, and we managed to communicate telekinetically with drummer Senator Thompson Aldous Speck using the mouth of road manager Reverend Scotty Impossible. If that sounds strange, get a load to what he says…
How did the Amino Acids hook up with instruments and land gigs here in Detroit?
The band crashed to earth in the early ‘60s, and briefly attempted to secure human host bodies to inhabit the planet with but was unsuccessful. We ended up hibernating for 30 years and emerged around 1998, and secured human hosts. For some reason unknown to anybody, instead of all the normal alien things that you would do, like breed giant lobsters, we started a band instead.
Considering your unique history and background, how would you describe the music that you make?
Short, fast, and no vocals. It’s like instrumental surf rock, like Dick Dale, but played on high speed and without repeating anything. We’re like Black Sabbath meets Dick Dale meets the Misfits. Or the Ventures plus the Dwarves plus the Minutemen.
Is that the kind of music that’s popular on the band’s home planet?
No. We really don’t know much about what it’s like over there. But surf rock is very rare in Detroit, which might be one of the reasons why we started here. There’s a void for this kind of stuff here. Nobody’s really pushing the boundaries. We’re fans of any instrumentals bands. Anything that we were gonna sing about would be too dumb to even listen to. We have nothing good to say.
You say that, but the band’s playing a benefit at the Belmont on Friday, July 18. What’s that for?
That show is for some College of Creative Studies students. A friend of ours that’s putting the show on asked us to play. We also have a show going on the next evening at Small’s, and at that show the band will feature no original members of the Amino Acids. It’s a Hell City Records showcase.
Is that how you’re playing another show on the same night at US-12 in Wayne with the Koffin Kats?
Correct. A completely different band will be playing that show. So we’re playing two shows and two different sets in two different places at pretty much the same time. Our show might finish a little earlier than their show does because we’re not headlining with the Koffin Kats. But we’re really excited about that. We feel it’s a step in the right direction.
There have been 14 members in the band so far. The guitar player and the drummer have been consistent –- the rest have been in and out. Some people have left and come back, but there’s been quite a turnover. We’ve done shows with just guitar and drums, we’ve done shows with no bass player but a Theremin player – it’s kind of getting to the point where anybody that wants to play can play. It’s less about music and more about sports.
You have that in common with Kiss, who are going to do a reality TV show where they’ll replace all of the members…
Are you kidding me? So Gene Simmons doesn’t have to play bass anymore. He can just sit back and make money. That’s amazing. I suppose there are similarities with us then.
Do you still enjoy playing Detroit?
Yes, very much. We play way too much in Detroit so we might try to cool it a little bit this year, and try to get out more. Detroit’s been very good to us. We generally play every show we’re asked to. It’s rare that anybody gets turned down.
Detroit’s a very venue-specific city, in that we get a different crowd at the Old Miami than we get at the Magic Stick than we get at the Lager House than we get at Small’s. The overlap of people that come to all of those different venues is actually quite small. If we play for long enough, everybody will have seen us. It’s taking longer than we might like it to, but whatever.
Who are some of your favorite local bands?
My favorite right now is Year of the Pig. It has members of the ChristPunchers, Diegrinder and Chapstik, so it’s like this three-guy local super-band. They’re just outstanding. Really heavy stuff. I like the Hadituptoheres a lot too.
What are the band's plans for the rest of the year?
We’re going into the studio to do two new records. We already know that we’re doing a vinyl-only release, and we want to get the tracks down for another one. It’ll be called “The Amino Acids Killed My Pets” and it’ll be 20 minutes long but include 20 songs. One song a minute.
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