Mustard Plug to play show at Rubbles Wednesday
One of the biggest names in modern independent music will hit the local scene Wednesday night as the Grand Rapids-based ska-punk band Mustard Plug will perform at Rubbles.
Mustard Plug formed in late 1991 as a group of friends who wanted to have some low-key fun playing music. Little did the band members know that a few years later they would be touring around the continent, playing 150 shows a year with other genre heavyweights to sold-out audiences.
"It totally happened by accident," said lead singer David Kirchgessner.
"We started out just wanting to maybe play some shows for some free beer or something; nothing serious. We were pretty humble and took it a little bit at a time, one step at a time," he said.
The six-piece group has always played horn-layered ska-punk, influenced by the genre during its budding stages back in the early '90s with bands like Fishbone, the Toasters, and Detroit's own Gangster Fun.
"We came from a punk background, too," Kirchgessner said, citing such influences as the Descendants, SNFU, and Naked Ray Gun.
Kirchgessner said that since then, the band has left those influences behind to just focus on creating its own unique sound, which is very important to the band.
"We sound like Mustard Plug and nobody else," he said, adding that the band members do listen to other music - practically "everything."
"Nothing really influences us anymore; the music we listen to does not come through in our music," he said.
He describes the band's music as "ska-punk pop songs, punk-influenced ska or ska-influenced punk - however you want to put it. Those are the two main elements. It is ska music with a punk attitude," he said, conceding that the band is basically still just a rock band.
Kirchgessner said Mustard Plug's music is not pure ska - a genre which sounds more like Jamaican reggae.
Since its beginning, the group has released three full-length recordings, opened for countless renowned punk and ska bands around the world and played several touring festivals.
"Big Daddy Multitude" (Moon Records, 1993) began the band's ascent to ska-punk demigod status with the right mix of horns, guitar, fast drum beats and pop sensibility. This album catapulted the group into a non-stop touring status as the band relentlessly played nationally and eventually sold 40,000 copies of the record.
In 1997, while opening for punk legends The Descendants in California, Mustard Plug caught the ears of Hopeless Records (the label for The Queers, Against All Authority and 88 Fingers Louis) who eventually released the band's follow-up album entitled "Evildoers Beware." The album went on to sell well over 60,000 copies.
1998 marked a successful time for Mustard Plug. The band played shows with other major groups such as Face To Face, Less Than Jake, NOFX, MxPx and the Ska Against Racism Tour (USA), Snow Jam (Canada), the Vans Warped Tour's Detroit show and a sold-out Japanese tour.
Mustard Plug also scored appearances on several high-profile compilation CDs including "Hopelessly Devoted to You," which has sold more than 100,000 copies to date. "Evildoers Beware" garnered mainstream popularity and spent two full months on the CMJ Top 200 chart.
The band's cover of The Verve Pipe's "The Freshmen" rose to No. 4 on the R'n'R Specialty Show chart and received considerable airplay on more than 15 different commercial alternative radio stations.
Kirchgessner said Mustard Plug covered "The Freshmen" for the Grand Rapids radio station WGRD's compilation CD since the band had no new material at the time to include on it. He said the band wanted to record the song as "a joke," but The Verve Pipe liked it a lot and it became a hit for Mustard Plug as well.
The popular song "You" also became a successful video in its own right and was played in regular rotation for over a month by MTV's M2 station and was seen on over 35 other cable access shows nationwide.
Mustard Plug is now playing behind its latest full-length record to date, "Pray for Mojo," which was released in March. The album was produced by punk legends Bill Stevenson and Stephen Egerton (Descendants, All, Black Flag).
When asked about any more foreseeable successes, Kirchgessner said the band will embark on a European tour in July.
He maintains the band just wants to keep on doing what it is doing right now - selling more records and getting more fans. He said this is probably a realistic way to set goals and just "take things a little bit at a time."
Kirchgessner said the group members are just happy to be a full-time band without other responsibilities. He said the band members' biggest achievement was being able to quit their regular jobs, something they had been wanting to do for years.
"It's fun and worth it. It's a natural progress as every day gets a little bit better putting more work into writing better catchy songs, playing energetic live shows and putting out good sounding recordings. We put a lot of work into it," he said.
Mustard Plug is using its week-long break between national tours to play some local shows around the state. The band just came off a western tour with New York City's The Pilfers and Japan's Nicotine. Next week, Mustard Plug will be hitting the east coast with ska favorites MU330.
Coconut Superfreak, a local ska band formed by CMU students, will open the local show at 10:30 p.m. Cover is $5.
Rubbles is located downtown at 112 W. Michigan St.
