By Mat Weir
Have you given up on rock ‘n roll? Think the snarling head of punk rock has died? Think again. Straight out of Huntington Beach, fatherland of old school punk, come The Strangers. With Dave Stucken on vocals and guitar, guitarist Rob Milucky, bassist Shane Strange and Julian Kelly on drums, these four guys bring in a raw, powerhouse of sound equal to the original punk records that helped inspire them down the dark path. If you had read my review of their debut album, The Human Condition, in last month’s issue you’ll know that I haven’t stopped listening to these guys since I was lucky enough to see them play with TSOL a few months back. Their songs are upbeat, energetic and based on real life events; not to mention Stucken has a voice smooth enough to impress Johnny Two Bags of Social D fame. In fact, the Strangers just finished an East Coast tour with Civet and Social D and will be touring with the latter again in October. When I first met up with them I had mistaken Rob with TSOL guitarist Ron; thankfully I was the third person to do that and the Strangers have a great sense of humor. I met up with them for a proper rock ‘n roll breakfast, coffee and cigarettes, and ended up hanging out for over an hour discussing everything from why classic horror movies will always be better than remakes, to why Joe Strummer was one of the best songwriters in history. So here’s the short version of that sunny afternoon, by the time you’re done reading you’ll understand why rock ‘n roll is more than a sound. How did you form? Rob: I was in The Johns, Dave was in the Serial Killers and Shane… Shane: I was retired. Rob: True. He was retired but before that we were in the Hunns together, and Julian was in the Broken Bottles. Basically we were all just bored, everyone had hit a wall. All of those bands were kind of done, ya know? What’s rad is that me and Jullian ran into each other at a guitar shop. He had just started to drum and asked if I knew of any bands. So I told him about my friends in the Broken Bottles; I didn’t know how good he was then! Not to blow smoke up his ass, but he’s a really good drummer for as long as he’s been playing. So I hooked him up with these guys and then we stole him! (laughs) Julian: I was waiting to get out, looking for that right opportunity. Dave: It’s funny, the Hunns were always one of my biggest influences; so I got to see Shane and Rob play at the Troubadour when I was in
high school. Later, I was doing this band, The Breakdowns, for years and got sick of that shit. My ex-girlfriend had a show with the Johns and I ran into Rob there. We were both just so bored with what we were doing that it clicked and we ended up starting The Strangers. After that we knew we had a good thing happening. Shane (points to Dave): This fucker’s so goddamn talented, it’s part of what brought me out of retirement. Rob made me come over to his apartment to listen to Dave, but I was skeptical. So I sat and listened to him play and went, “Whoa!” (jaw drops). And then he went to the bathroom and I told Rob, “Holy shit, the kid can fucking sing, I mean really (band laughs). Where did you find this kid?” And Rob just says, “I don’t know, he came to me!” “What’s his name?” “ ‘Good lookin’ Dave” (band laughs). Tell me about the record. Rob: We have a full-length that’s finished and available at our shows. But now we’re trying to find someone to put it out or just end up doing