Only ever saw ALL once, and I think the lineup that I caught, at the Cruel Elephant in the early 1990s, was likely with Scott Reynolds on vocals, circa Allroy Saves; I remember being excited to hear "Educated Idiot," which was their newest tune and the one that spoke the most to me. The subsequent (and current) vocalist -- the one on Breaking Things, Pummel, Mass Nerder and Problematic -- is the one relevant to this article; his name is Chad Price, and he's got a new band, the Chad Price Peace Coalition, who are playing LanaLou's this Wednesday, with some very cool openers, including, yes, the SLIP~ons; Brock Pytel of that band -- and former drummer/ vocalist for the Doughboys -- designed the banner you see above, and has some history with ALL, he explains: "When my era of Doughboys toured with ALL, Dave Smalley was the singer. I met Chad later, possibly in Boston after I’d left the band. I remember telling him I was a big fan and loved the way he sang, to which he replied, he’d been inspired to sing that way by me. That’s the kind of gentleman he has always been."
For his part, Brock's favourite Chad Price/ ALL song is "Shreen" ("though Chad would probably roll his eyes at that," he notes).
This Wednesday's show at LanaLou's is just a teaser for a more significant coming-together of related bands, Brock explains, that will be taking place in mid-July, back east, where two of Price's other bands (Drag the River and the Chad Price Peace Coalition) will be playing alongside ALL at Büddies Fest in Tillsonburg, Ontario, with Scott Reynolds doing a separate set of his own. Brock also hints that "Greg Norton is doing Hüsker songs with Jon Snodgrass and David Jarnstrom" and that Brock may or may not have been "asked to sing a Grant song," though that gets away from all things ALL- and Chad Price-related.
In anticipation of this Wednesday's show, I did a brief email interview with Chad Price to talk about ALL, his new album (A Perfect Pearl) and various projects in-between, which run the gamut from American roots (Drag the River) to prog metal (A Vulture Wake).
AM: Were you making music before you joined ALL? How old were you, and what were the circumstances of connecting with them?
AM: Curious about working with Bill! As I was telling Brock, my one interaction with him (gushing fanboy stuff after an ALL show here) was cut very short -- he had to get to the washroom and just didn't much seem to be into hearing me blurt how much I loved his songs -- it was like, "uh, thanks... I gotta pee," an indifferent mumble... Brock tells me he does warm up!
CP: Hahaha that sounds correct. Yes he does warm up but he’s not one for small talk. I’m not either so we often sit in silence together. Seriously though he’s a trip and a blast to talk to when you get to know each other.
AM: Tell me about bringing songs to ALL? That must have been somewhat intimidating, if you were already a fan! What songs did you write with them? What was the first? Did they support and encourage it, or suggest changes, or...?
CP: I was barely a guitar player but I tried to emulate the ALL sound anyway. The only pre -ALL song I had written that remained was "Original Me." The guitar riff is basically exactly what I wrote but when the three of them play the song it turns into an ALL song. And yes every time I ever showed a song to them it was intimidating. I was just a kid only beginning to write.
CP: He’s your basic nerd hahaha. He’s very kind and fairly normal. I met him when he did back up vocals on Breaking Things.
AM: A Vulture Wake's song "The Fool Must Be Killed." I have some suspicions who the fool there must be, but...?
AM: For a band with prog roots, titling a song "Red" seems ballsy indeed! Somehow I think it's commenting on American politics again, but I can't pick out the lyrics... a dying clown? I don't hear a connection musically with King Crimson's "Red," so... not criticizing, just curious -- what about the song motivated that title?
CP: No King Crimson connection there. You are correct in your American politics assessment. It was the fuel for the whole record. Drowning in red seas.
CP: It’s so fucked up and I’m still shocked at how many were/are so easily duped by an obvious conman. Just so fucking despicable. I know the majority of Americans are not with this orange clown but the rightwing is so loud and dumb that it sure seems like they outnumber us.
CP: A few years ago I put out a record on Joey Cape’s (Lagwagon) label One Week Records. It’s named this because artists spend a week at Joey’s house recording a record. It’s usually a stripped down acoustic record and the label model was a subscription that you bought to listen to the catalog. They wanted to release my full band record even though I didn’t record with Joey and I asked that vinyl was made, which they had never done. When it got a physical release it somehow became titled One Week Record which is idiotic hahahaha. It’s a Chad Price record but Chad Price Peace Coalition is just Chad Price with a full band. Our live set focuses on this record and the new record A Perfect Pearl.
AM: Aha. Okay, tell me about the title A Perfect Pearl? Again, there's some chutzpah in that title -- I think somehow of Big Thief calling their first album Masterpiece, though they undercut that quite a bit with an image of kids playing on the cover...
CP: I’m from Kansas City, Missouri. Back when ALL was planning their move to Missouri from California I met Bill through a friend who had booked the band. We remained friends and my band at the time hung out with the guys and played barn parties together and shit like that. When Scott decided to quit, Bill hit me up and asked if I was interested. Of course I was, because ALL was my favorite band on the planet. He sent me some demos to check out and I drove out to Brookfield and recorded a couple songs. He then flew to L.A. to try others out. I got the job.
AM: Curious about working with Bill! As I was telling Brock, my one interaction with him (gushing fanboy stuff after an ALL show here) was cut very short -- he had to get to the washroom and just didn't much seem to be into hearing me blurt how much I loved his songs -- it was like, "uh, thanks... I gotta pee," an indifferent mumble... Brock tells me he does warm up!
CP: Hahaha that sounds correct. Yes he does warm up but he’s not one for small talk. I’m not either so we often sit in silence together. Seriously though he’s a trip and a blast to talk to when you get to know each other.
AM: Tell me about bringing songs to ALL? That must have been somewhat intimidating, if you were already a fan! What songs did you write with them? What was the first? Did they support and encourage it, or suggest changes, or...?
CP: I was barely a guitar player but I tried to emulate the ALL sound anyway. The only pre -ALL song I had written that remained was "Original Me." The guitar riff is basically exactly what I wrote but when the three of them play the song it turns into an ALL song. And yes every time I ever showed a song to them it was intimidating. I was just a kid only beginning to write.
AM: Curious if you have a Milo story? (He also seems like a weird dude to me, based on seeing him with the Descendents a few years ago: he had what I was told, some sort of hydration unit strapped to his back, under his shirt, which made him look like he had a really square hunched back. I've never seen anyone perform in a getup like that and I think if I were going to wear a backpack live I would go with the "outside the shirt" look, rather than the "what's wrong with his back" look! https://www.reddit.com/r/Descendents/comments/6bbvtm/why_does_milo_wear_a_backpack_when_singing_live/
CP: He’s your basic nerd hahaha. He’s very kind and fairly normal. I met him when he did back up vocals on Breaking Things.
AM: What was your greatest moment with ALL?
CP: I got to do some very cool things for sure that I’ve taken for granted. I mean I played a song on Conan O’Brien and got put up in a fancy New York hotel room and rode in a limo and shit like that. Crazy stuff I never expected to happen. One great moment was when we had a sold out show at City Gardens in Jersey and I had zero voice. Bill called Milo to come sing instead of cancelling so I got to stand in the crowd and see Descendents for the first time.
AM: I gather there's some crossover between ALL and [Chad's subsequent band] Drag the River -- that a song you wrote on Mass Nerder, "Until I Say So," was originally written as a Drag the River song, and eventually recorded as one? How did that happen? Do you do other ALL songs (whether you wrote them originally or not) in your sets with the Chad Price Peace Coalition? Do you do any A Vulture Wake songs [Chad's prog-metal project]?
CP: Any song I would write I would run by everyone. I would write everything on acoustic so even if it was meant for ALL it sounded more acoustic based. If anyone liked a song we would figure out how to make it an ALL song no matter how simple the tune. These days I focus on my solo songs live but we’ll work in some fun surprises in the future.
AM: A Vulture Wake's song "The Fool Must Be Killed." I have some suspicions who the fool there must be, but...?
CP: You know exactly who the fool is and the song is more relevant than ever now.
AM: Aha. Indeed. Explain the band name A Vulture Wake to me? I'm curious if you named the band after the practice of Sky Burials. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_burial
CP: A vulture wake is a group of vultures feeding. I thought it was an appropriate name and very cool sounding as well.
AM: For a band with prog roots, titling a song "Red" seems ballsy indeed! Somehow I think it's commenting on American politics again, but I can't pick out the lyrics... a dying clown? I don't hear a connection musically with King Crimson's "Red," so... not criticizing, just curious -- what about the song motivated that title?
CP: No King Crimson connection there. You are correct in your American politics assessment. It was the fuel for the whole record. Drowning in red seas.
AM: If I can ask -- are you, as an American, doing okay? The mood up here is not good re: America right now. I was going to post the Exploited's "USA" on Facebook apropos of the tariffs but then I thought, "Wait, I have LOTS OF AMERICAN FRIENDS..." Then a local punk band started covering it...
CP: It’s so fucked up and I’m still shocked at how many were/are so easily duped by an obvious conman. Just so fucking despicable. I know the majority of Americans are not with this orange clown but the rightwing is so loud and dumb that it sure seems like they outnumber us.
AM: What is One Week Record? It is not actually a Peace Coalition record? It seems very roots-oriented. Was it made separately from -- at a different time from -- A Perfect Pearl? Do you do songs from it in your current set?
CP: A few years ago I put out a record on Joey Cape’s (Lagwagon) label One Week Records. It’s named this because artists spend a week at Joey’s house recording a record. It’s usually a stripped down acoustic record and the label model was a subscription that you bought to listen to the catalog. They wanted to release my full band record even though I didn’t record with Joey and I asked that vinyl was made, which they had never done. When it got a physical release it somehow became titled One Week Record which is idiotic hahahaha. It’s a Chad Price record but Chad Price Peace Coalition is just Chad Price with a full band. Our live set focuses on this record and the new record A Perfect Pearl.
AM: Aha. Okay, tell me about the title A Perfect Pearl? Again, there's some chutzpah in that title -- I think somehow of Big Thief calling their first album Masterpiece, though they undercut that quite a bit with an image of kids playing on the cover...
CP: The title is a tribute to my little girl dog Pearl who we had to let go after I got home from recording.
AM: Oh, man, sorry to hear. Okay, a final question: given that you went from ALL to country music to prog metal, with a few stops in between, I wonder if the band name the Chad Price Peace Coalition is meant as an in-joke, that you're uniting all these genres in harmony -- a coalition of your musical influences?
CP: I didn’t think of it in that way but that’s exactly where I’m heading. I don’t want to be confined to a genre because I like a lot of different things.
Thanks to Chad Price for answering my questions! Check out the lead single from A Perfect Pearl, "A.M." (no relation to my initials, ha) here and the newest video, for "Rose," here. And note that the Tillsonberg weekend pass is a mere $174 CDN, which is actually almost affordable... if you want an excuse to fly to Ontario!
Meanwhile, speaking of the Doughboys, the last time I caught them, they had 7" of a session from 1987 on their merch table, named after the studio where it was recorded; you can hear it here. It's a three-song demo that first came out in 2003, though I believe the vinyl is new.
Brock's history with that band and with the SLIP~ons is covered here; I don't know if there are still copies to be had at the merch table, but if so, it's a must-get, if you care about Canadian punk, with the songs likened to the poppier moments of Hüsker Dü on PunkNews. I don't have any other Doughboys material that Brock is on, personally, so I'm super glad to have added this to my collection!
For tickets to this week's Chad Price Peace Coalition shows, see his website! For Büddies Fest tickets, see here.
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