BLEED – interview by mike bushman
Beer, Brats and Bleed. Oh, the inhabitants of Milwaukee Wisconsin are a lucky bunch of freezing bastards. They get to claim Bleed as their own dirty, greasy, straight-outta-tha-garage rock n’ roll. A dirty rock with some liberal progressions lifted from old 50’s blues standards. But filtered through some shitty equipment, some gritty distortion and a lotta cheap beer. The fuck-it-all punk attitude seeps in, but Bleed are proudly dirty garage rock. In dirty bars. With dirty chicks. Although you lucky Midwest people get to see “Milwaukee’s Best” often (they just finished a stint through the Midwest with The Mistreaters and Kilowatts), some of you favored few might have just caught them as they made some select Southern California appearances. It sounded like they earned their tour badges this time out. David the bass player had a bad fever and then Bob caught it. So for 5 days they drove around really sick. Finally they went to the doctor and found out they had tonsillitis. So they got some drugs and were now just finally starting to feel better at the time of this interview.
Because of this, I felt I must do the “Best Bleed Interview” with singer / vocalist Bob Merkt.
Best Beer: Pabst.
Best Bleed Song: Hasn’t been written yet.
Best so far: Motor Psycho.
Best Bleed Lyric: The lyrics from the song “Fifth”.
Best kind of cheese (being from Wisconsin myself, it’s like that black thing where I can make fun of my own): Sharp Cheddar.
Best girl you know you might be able to impress by mentioning her name in a hip music magazine: I don’t really know many girls. The best girl would be my girlfriend Laura.
Best Bleed tour story: We were just in New York. And our drummer (Bart) had to take a leak, and got busted peeing in Central Park. He is now wanted in New York City. Then we got in an argument at the Continental. We got thrown out. I punched the wall. I was mad at myself. It was just a rough night. The guy wigged out on me and threw me out on the street. He wouldn’t even let me get my jacket. So don’t go to the Continental.
Best venue to catch a Bleed show: The Cactus Club in Milwaukee.
Best TV show: The Simpsons.
Best movie: Highway 61
Best reason Bleed sounds like a garage trained rock band of greasy dive bar proportions: Because that’s exactly what we are. We’re a bunch of grease balls from Milwaukee.
Best drug: The Omoxicylan that’s getting rid of my tonsillitis.
Best excuse not to go to work tomorrow: I’m 3000 miles away from home.
Best Bleed influence: Johnny the Boy. He’s a good buddy. We’ve all got anchor tattoos (the three of us in Bleed). We have those because of him.
Best Bleed member: That would be Bart. He’s the best guy out of the three of us.
Best way to waste an afternoon: Get the best interview ever.
Best reason people should spend their hard earned cash on Bleed: Because Rock n’ roll lives.
