By the time you read this, Simon R.D. Flynn will be a very long way from home. And this is a good thing. Back in Bristol, England, he has to play shows with horrible nu metal groups because promoters don't know where else to put his band Lube. Sure, about 10 years ago, Simon, bassist Snoops Z. Taylor and drummer James Henry Masters (guitarist Stuart G. Taylor wasn't involved yet) were in a Zeppelin/Doors kind of band (“I know, I know,” he sighs), but then they thankfully got past that to some more refined material: the punk blues of LA's Gun Club, the mellifluous rockabilly guitar runs of the Smiths, the gloom and doom of Nick Cave, even the glitter glam of Bowie and T. Rex. Their debut single on Hollywood's Revenge Records (which convinced them to pack up their guitars and come on over for their first trans-Atlantic trip ever!) sounds like the soundtrack to David Lynch's Lost M1 Motorway, a persistently sinister peek at the no-man's-land between the Cramps and the Damned that's just dribbling personality out of every crack. And they're bringing it to Southern California because they hope people are ready for it here—you know, because nu metal just never quite seemed to get a foothold around these parts, did it? We wanted to know: Are these British boys ready for Southern California?
OC Weekly: You're aware what “lube” means in America, right? Because it's something a couple might purchase at the same store that sells, you know, like rubber French maid outfits and Jell-O molds shaped like penises.
Simon Flynn: It wasn't that originally; it was just like “lubricating the music scene.” But, yeah, it is the same thing here. A lube can be like an oil or a sexual aid, so we like to trade on some of that.
So let me give you the rest of the Southern California Cultural Readiness Quiz. Are you ready for stucco?
We're open to stucco. We're bored with Gothic colors. We want to see some synthetic, flashy kind of things!
Taco Bell or Del Taco?
We're willing to delve.
And there's no mad cow disease here. You can come over and get different diseases from our meat.
There's a lot of poetry in that.
Are you ready for crappy American beer?
We're a drinking band, and the rhythm section in particular drinks particularly. But they aren't experienced drinkers. The band splits on this. In Europe, we can get all variety of strange ales, all incredibly alcoholic. And myself—the singer—and the guitarist are more into real ales, while the rhythm section are more for just lagers and beers and more kind of generic American things. We'll have to see how they accommodate.
Do you like surfing?
Well, we've tried, but there are not a lot of waves. And the nearest beach is in Severen, a horrible industrial place.
We have that in Huntington Beach. Are you ready for 8,000,000 loud American accents pounding into your ears no matter where you go or who you talk to?
I think we are—we've grown up with the stuff on television!
Were you going to do anything particularly English when you get here, just to maintain a distinct cultural identity?
Our guitarist was thinking of coming out in a 19th century pith helmet. But hopefully people will just be thrilled by the way we speak—novelty values, you know.
How come bad guys in the movies always have to speak in these clipped British accents, whether they're Nazis or Communists or second-in-command on the Death Star?
Like if you're English, you're frequently decadent or evil? I don't know, but I think we'll probably come over as decadent and evil. It goes back to the '30s, Eric Von Stroheim and those things. You know, Sunset Boulevard is one of my favorite movies.
Sunset Boulevard is a long way from Orange County.
Well, we've all heard the myths of LA—we're probably going to be kind of sadly buying into the myths. We'll probably be disillusioned by the whole thing—in fact, we're looking forward to the disillusionment!
Lube performs with the Starvations, the Flash Express, the American Thighs and the New Detectives at the Gypsy Lounge, 23600 Rockfield Ave., Ste. 3-A, Lake Forest, (949) 206-9990. Thurs., Sept. 5, 8 p.m. $7-$8. 21+.
