Rob Schmidt: 13 Songs

I ask artists to put their iPods on shuffle and talk about what comes up. This week I talked to Rob Schmidt, Aquarium production manager and drummer for local progressive metal giants Battlefields, about growing up punk rock, the insanity of the Flemish and the worst sandwich he’s ever made.
1)  The Weakerthans – Left and Leaving - John Samson is a songwriting genius. He started out playing punk rock in Propaghandi and then hung it up to start this really excellent pop rock band. This record reminds me of high school, driving in a ’91 Aerostar that really should not have been driven on the highway, to Minot or Williston to play a show. This record was definitely a soundtrack to a lot of those nights.

2)  Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – Ballad of the Sin Eater – Also a guy who has his roots in the punk and hardcore movements but moved into more melodic pop rock. Ted is another one of my favorite songwriters and really just a cool dude. They played the Aquarium a while back and Ted and I went downstairs to Dempsey’s and went shot for shot of Jameson for probably two hours and talked about touring and punk rock. He’s just a really down to Earth dude.

3)  Breather Resist – Keep ‘em in Stitches – One of the best live bands I have ever seen. They played at Billiards a few years ago and the lead singer, who was kind of an awkward dude, was licking people’s faces and spitting on the ceiling and when there’s fifteen people there that gets a bit weird, but I thought it was cool. He quit the band right after this album and the remaining dudes changed their name to Young Widows, whose new record (Old Wounds) totally blows my mind. It’s got that Southern, pissed-off, vibe. Like Southern dudes who hate Southern Rock.

4)  The Descendents – My Dad Sucks – This is off the Liveage record. There’s something near and dear to me about Descendents live records, they’re just really raw. This song in particular I have played many times with (John) Shipley, Jerik (Hendrickson) and Sean (Murray) in our Descendents/All cover band, Bassmaster General. I would say that the Descendents are one of my favorite punk rock bands of all time, they were probably one of the biggest influences on me when I was first starting a band and they still and always will be top notch punk rock for me.

5)  The Black Angels – Dee-Ree-Shee – I’m not huge into psych rock, but I really love this band and I’ve never gotten to see them live. They played at the Aquarium when Battlefields was on tour in Europe and I was bummed that I couldn’t be there to see them. A friend of mine hipped me to this band when she was doing merch for Battlefields back when we had the rickety old blue van. She showed us the Passover record and I just fell in love with it. I also dig how they use a lot of nontraditional instruments like drone box and sitar. Yet somehow they can craft these really accessible songs out of all of these weird elements. It’s a really interesting way of going about things.

6)  Langhorne Slim – Restless – This is one of my favorite songs he’s ever written. It brings out that whole dejected touring musician vibe in me. I travel around and go from city to city and don’t get to dive that deeply into personal relationships with people. (Langhorne Slim) and I were actually talking about this song the last time he came to Fargo. We ended up at one of my friends’ houses, talking about music. I remember scrounging through the fridge trying to make him a vegetarian sandwich at 7 a.m. when he had to be on the road at 8:30. If I remember, it was basically the worst sandwich I’ve ever made. I think it was just cucumber on bread with mustard.

7)  Paul Stanley – Stage Banter – Okay, Paul Stanley is a crazy person. I’ve got this collection of 70 tracks of Paul Stanley stage banter from the early Kiss years all the way into his solo career. Everything starts with (adopts operatic falsetto) “Alllll riiiiiight, Toronto! Listen! We gonna rock tonight!” He’s just such a dick, too, at one point he goes, “Hey, is that drink for the keyboard player or is that drink for me? That drink’s for me!” He basically sounds like Doctor Roxxxo from Metalocalypse. I got this collection from a band from Philadelphia that we toured with called Rosetta. We both showed up at the venue really early and they were all just sitting in their van listening to this. We became instant best friends because of Paul Stanley.

8)  Nightfist – Chapter IV: Arabian Gunparty – This is a super obscure record. It is one of those things that gets passed around from friend to friend because it’s just so bizarre and amazing. Years before Dragonforce, this record was released on some tiny label (ed: Temporary Residence) and it’s this instrumental adventure-metal record that just shreds. You can totally imagine riding across the field of battle on your mighty steed, slaying orcs with your broadswoard. Funny enough, I think I like this record so much because it reminds me of being in junior high and playing Warhammer 40K. Painting those little miniatures of elves and wizards, imagining I was fighting with trolls.

9)  Mastodon – March of the Fire Ants – I went to a Catholic highschool and, when I was 17 there was a new priest, Father Chad. He was a younger dude and he had played in punk rock bands and so we hit it off because I was playing in a punk rock band. He used to make me these mix CDs of poorly ripped, low quality MP3s like everyone did back then, and one of them had this song on it. That was the first time I heard Mastodon, was from this priest. Interestingly, this guy who helped solidify my interest in metal, his younger brother is Troy who plays in (local instrumental post-rock band) Sunrise/Sunset. It’s pretty funny how the world connects like that.

10) Battles – Atlas – This record, Mirrored, is one of my favorite records of 2008. Just a weird record all around, you don’t hear a lot of stuff like this, it’s experimental but catchy at the same time. When Battlefields was in Europe we were on tour with this Belgian band called Amen Ra. They brought along the guy who runs their record label as our driver and tour manager. His name was, Johnny Disco and he was an insane Flemish man. Every day he would play this song to wake us up. Every day, waking up to this crazy Flemish dude named Johnny Disco dancing in the drivers’ seat, I just about lost my mind. It was amazing.

11) Amesoeurs – Au Crepuscule de Nos Reves – I found out about this record through my buddy Heath Rave who plays drums for the band Wolvhammer down in the Cities and is basically one of the most metal dudes I’ve ever met. I had been really into this guy, Neige, who is a French black metal musician and Heath turned me on to Amesoeurs which is a project he did that mixes that kind of ’80s Goth rock sound with elements of traditional black metal and shoegaze. It’s an eclectic mix, but it works really well for this band.

12) Bad Rabbits – Advantage Me! – This is off of their Stick up Kids EP which just came out. These dudes are friends of mine from Boston. The drummer plays in the band Irepress who Battlefields toured with for a month and the guitarist for Bad Rabbits is Irepress’ soundguy. Bad Rabbits started out as Slick Rick’s backing band and, after a few lineup changes, settled on this kind of early Michael Jackson meets mid ’90s R&B and New Jack Swing aesthetic. While we were out on the road they were playing me the initial demos for this EP and I was stoked on it then, now they’re opening up for Goodie Mob and Keith Sweat. Awesome.

13) Propaghandi – Coach’s Corner – This song is awesome. He is calling out this guy named Ron McClain who has a radio show about hockey in Canada, and is apparently a total dick. The cool thing about it is that he talks about how much he loves the sport but hates all the machismo, chauvinism and political zealotry that go along with it. It also has one of the best riffs on the album. Plus he mentions Fargo in the lyrics, and you gotta love a song that namedrops Fargo, right?

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