Hollywood or Bust
Rock Sound : December 1999 (Issue 9) "I'm sorry sir, but you can't shoot on the roof. The City of West Hollywood requires you to have a permit which costs $50 and they're closed for the day."
We've flown half way across the world to meet those charismatic rogues, the Fun Lovin' Criminals, who are staying in the rock'n'roll hotel, the Hyatt on Sunset Boulevard and it's not going to plan.
Spinal Tap filmed here, Metallica held parties here, Led Zeppelin trashed the place; you name a successful band, the odds are that they've stayed here. But today, red tape and an officious
hotel employee confine us to a bedroom balcony rather than lazing 'round the roof top pool area. But at least we've got hold of the band. Yesterday they were nowhere to be seen. After a 10
hour flight, a dodgy cab driver, and too many vodka and cokes, we were left tired and alone. The Fun Lovin' Criminals were busy carousing in The House of Blues, while we we're sat in a
hotel bar waiting for some news on their whereabouts. Considering they leave for Hawaii the next day and I've been assured that they won't do promotion on a show day (ie: today), it's
looking increasingly hopeless. By 5pm we're ready to pack our bags and get back on a plane to London, with no story and only memories of hotel rooms as souvenirs of Los Angeles.
But then the phone call comes: we have 20 minutes to take photos before the band leave for the Viper Rooms. Finally we're ushered into FLC's manager's bedroom and wait for the band. Do
they exist? Are they here? What in God's name are they like? GENTLEMEN TAKE POLAROIDS
Charming, as it happens. And exactly as you would expect. Mackie, the new drummer, is quiet, but looks like he's got a flick-knives concealed about his person. Fast, or Fisty as his friends
call him, is tall, cheerful and good looking. And, wearing huge shades, there's Huey Morgan, chief Crim' and one of the most entertaining rock starts on the planet. Big, fat American joints
are immediately constructed, the TV's switched to MTV and the band line up for the camera, with the sun just starting to set behind them, cracking jokes and throwing shapes. Huey shows
off his recent 'New York City' tattoo on his arm and informs us that he loves the new Supergrass album so much that he's using as a yardstick for their new recordings. Basically
they won't stop until theirs is better. I point out that recording in Hawaii is hardly going to be a chore and Huey laughs. "Hey, man we're not gonna be recording out there. We're just gonna
hang out at a friend's house and get the record company to pay. Then head back to New York and make it on the cheap!" Schmoove… Ahe then they're gone. Great photos, but no interview.
So we traipse along Sunset Boulevard getting funny looks 'cos we're like walking (dude!), when everybody else hops in a car to go 500 yards. And we soon find out why. We're accosted by a
strange man with a live white rabbit in one hand and a stolen camera in the other, offering us either for £60. We ignore him, fascinated by the couple behind him, who with their saccharine
smiles look like Donny and Marie Osmond. Dressed in white and clutching roses they walk past us, oblivious to anything other than their lurve. Finally after 15 minutes we arrive at the Viper
Rooms, where the band have already started their deafening soundcheck. SOUNDING OUT THE VIPER ROOMS The Viper Rooms is a remarkably small club with maroon walls housing a sign that reads 'Room
Capacity 175 Persons'. Considering the fact that the last few shows the Fun Lovin' Criminals played in England were on the main stage at Reading and Glastonbury to thousands of fans, this
feels a little strange. They rip through 'Southside', Huey performing a fantastic guitar solo while smoking like a trooper, but Mackie gets in to trouble for being 'too heavy handed' on the
drums. Huey defends him "It's not that bad dude, I'm not flipping over it!" and shoots his drummer a grin. Mackie's settled in well for the new boy. Up until last year, Steve-o filled the drum stool, but
for reasons the band won't go into (but are probably linked to Steve-o's arrest for obscene phone calls to a gym whilst on tour in England) he's no longer part of their set up. Mackie however can do no wrong.
"He's one of the greatest guys that we've met," raves Huey later that night. "He's a real New York guy. He gets along with everyone and he's the best fuckin' drummer that I've ever played
with. In fact he's everyone's favourite drummer. The guys from the Foo Fighters love him, they're all 'Mackie, Mackie, Mackie'. Taylor and Dave think he's great. Every band touches
base with him. He's got a history. He was in Bad Brains, the Cro-Mags… I don't wanna diss Steve-o but Mackie's so much better. He's made us play so well, I love to watch him."
In fact, Huey does just that for a while, coming to sit with us as Mackie and Fast jam away. Fast is incredible, playing keyboards and the trumpet at the same time whilst hammering out
basslines on a set of pedals. I tell Huey that up close it's obvious the band are incredible musicians and Huey smiles modestly. "Why thank you, that's nice. I mean I don't toot horns,
none of us do, but the one who should is Fast. I mean the guy plays like 10 instruments at once, it's pretty fuckin' amazing." And then with a smirk he adds, "I know a few scales, a coupla
chords…" before playing us a spoof commercial about Delta Airlines, which has him in tears with it's New York slang, but leaves both the press officer and myself only slightly bemused.
"Fuck this shit," laughs Huey, "you wanna talk?" and leads us outside to the car park where the band's Jaguar is parked. We climb in, accompanied by FLC's DJ Matteo (affectionately known
as Potatoe), who is responsible for rolling near-lethal joints. From here we get a view of all of LA, punctuated every now and again by a lung rattling cough from the back seat. And Huey starts talking…
INTO THE LIMELIGHT "It all started in 1994, when I met Fast. We were working at the Limelight Club in New York City. It's a big rock venue, but it used to be a crazy, crazy disco – drugs, sex, you name it. We
came up with this idea of music that we liked so being room-mates we decided to make that music rather than listen to MTV, which was shitty. A friend of ours, Domonic DeLuca was the
DJ at the club and he was over at our house smokin' a joint and he was, 'Wow, that's great, give me a tape, I'll play it at the club.'
And the rest as they say is history. 'Scooby Snacks', their first single was a hit all over the world and they became massive in Europe, especially in the UK. The debut album 'Come find
yourself' has sold over a million and follow up '100% Columbian' isn't far behind but it's a success that hasn't been repeated back in America. Huey isn't that bothered though.
"Well let's look around. Let's look at what's big in the United States (points to a billboard). There's Puff Daddy. The reason that he's flourished is that he takes old songs that people
remember, and it's pretty much carbon copies. No-one here wants to hear music that people think about when they make it. They want music that's really McDonalds kids stuff. So I'm glad
that we're not big over here. It's a relief, it makes us think that we're onto something 'cos the people that do like us really appreciate what we're doing."
Do you feel that European's listen to music in a different way? "Yeah. I think they like to think for themselves. This is spoon-fed, right here. I mean look at
Sugar Ray. MTV sold them five million records. OK, it's a really catchy song, and the kid's cute, but that's about as indie rock as you get now. It's just pop."
But you're pop starts now, at least in Britain. "Well 'Scooby Snacks' was a pop hit across the United States. And when we wrote it, we were
kinda making fun of pop music in that song. WE talked about stuff that people just don't talk about on the radio."
True, robbing banks whacked on drugs isn't the staple subject for most Top 10 hits. But it did have the help of Tarantino samples and created the wave of cool gangster heist movies.
"Yeah," Huey drawls with a touch of impatience, "That's been the bane of my life for like the last five years." ACTING SOPHISTICATED
The second Fun Lovin' Criminals album was more downbeat affair, playing less to a pop audience and more to a mature, sophisticated set. "We couldn't do another 'Scooby Snacks', "
explains Huey. It's like the Rolling Stones came our first with a Lennon & McCartney song, a pop song, and if you look at it that was, that's kinda what we did to get in there. But once we
got in there we wanted people to know that we weren't going to be doing the same shit every record. We're not Smash Mouth y'know." Indeed not, their next venture is a rock-tastic UK tour in support of their album 'Mimosa', a collection of lounge tunes. Specifically Fun
Lovin' Criminals songs played in a cocktail-party kinda vibe, which Huey describes as "something we always wanted to do, 'cos when we play gigs away from all the main tour, we always do
lounge stuff." So are you going to be chilled and sophisticated tonight? "Oh no, we're gonna rock for LA! There's 175 people in that room who are gonna be hard of
hearing. But we can strip stuff down and build it back up. We're lucky that we have the dynamic. Some bands go out there and give it all they've got for an hour and a half, and that's
good but I'm too old for that shit, I can't do that." Huey, 31 years old, is joking. Their show at the Forum in London earlier this year was
outrageously loud and heavy. It was like seeing Metallica, I tell him with tounge slightly in cheek. "Ha ha, really? You see people say 'hey your second album, you've really mellowed', but there's '10
th Street', 'Korean Bodega' and of course 'Southside'. You get what you need off a Fun Lovin' Criminals record. You get your soft shit and you get your rough shit."
What about your acting shit? The highlight of recent shows has been your acting masterclass. What prompted that?
"It's like, someone said to me that one thing they liked about us playing was that I actually talked to the audience. I'm like 'Well, your fuckin' there! You want me to pretend you're not
when you're coughing between songs? I can hear you, I can see you, I might as well talk with you and make you interested in what's going on. You've paid money to come and see me."
Of course LA is one place where you can guarantee your audience is going to be full of actors and during the show Huey introduces his scene from 'Scarface' by saying, "Because we're in
Hollywood, I feel I should teach all you wannabe actors a thing or two." The audience actually laughs, unaware that Mr. Morgan is actually muscling in on their territory.
"I've done a film with Laurence Fishburn called 'Once in A Life' that's coming out in November." Grins Huey, taking a huge drag on a fresh spliff. "And Gary Oldman's doing a film that he
wants me in. People send me movie offers all the time and I suppose it's cool. I mean it's very cool if I get to die in it. And it's cool if I get the money up front. I did something out here
yesterday for the BBC but I had to bring the boys with me. I feel uncomfortable going in as 'Huey'. I did a chat show just recently with Jamie Theakston called 'Namedroppers'. It was a
pilot but I felt so stupid doing it." NEW YORK AMBASSADORS This may come as a surprise for the UK, where Huey has made a name for himself dating
eligible young ladies and hoofing it around trendy nightspots. But despite his protestations, he is a bona fide celebrity. Hey, I don't know about that. No-one jumps around when they see me
in New York. I can just see them goin', 'Oh, its Huey from the Limelight.' They still think of me like that." But for the UK you embody New York. You're the epitome of cool, a wisecrackin' good guy,
with a bit of a bad edge. "OK, it's nice to be the ambassador of New York, and I think if anyone can do it well I can,
'cos I understand the good and the bad of New York. But, I'm just a regular Joe. It's like, hangin' out at The Viper Rooms in LA is pretty cool for us. We're just guys from New York. We
see shit like this on TV and now we're here. I'm not Damon from Blur, I'm not a celebrity bug out. You can jump on that train, 'cos that train leaves every five minutes; the pompous rock star
trip. And I've seen a lot of my friends get on it. But I'm not getting on. There's no place in my life for all the weird shit that comes with that. I like being me, I don't want to be someone
fancy. I'll just stick to playing music, and doing the occasional film of course, ha ha."
"Yeah living out here can do something funny to you," he agrees. "It does make you a little strange. You go to a club and everyone's a Blood or a Crip or a Sorano, you come up to Hollywood and everyone's an actor or a producer and everyone's chasing a role, so that can do your head in. And it's weird that it's so sunny all the time, that would fuck me up, the fact that it's so nice all the time." After recommending some restaurants for us ("Try In and Out Burgers just a bit further down on Sunset. Or try pinks over at Melrose. They do the best chilli dogs I have ever had in my life. I go there all the time when I can. It's the best chilli dog in the world. There's something to be said for that!") we leave him to prepare for the show. DEATH TO FALSE METAL By 11pm the Viper Rooms is over capacity. No cameras are allowed (in case you spot a celebrity – no such luck, just Scott Ian of Anthrax is in attendance) but there's a tangible buzz of expectation as Matteo spins Michael Jackson and Prince songs, to a good-time LA crowd of scenesters and music biz employees. The swish curtains that guard the stage are pulled back to reveal the be-suited three-piece and the crowd goes crazy for them. Considering they're small fry here, the reception they get is incredible. Cries of "We love you, Huey" can be heard, as the band play what for the UK would be a greatest hits set. So there's a pumping 'Korean Bodega', a raucous 'Coney Island Girl', an hilarious 'Big Night Out' and some remarkably poor jokes. The audience love it, none more so that when Huey slags off their US label (naming and shaming the head of the company) before launching into a heavier than ever 'Southside'. Huey looks over and grins, flashing a devil sign and announcing "Death to all false metal!" Someday soon the Criminals will rule America. For now, they're just happy to be lounging around. Typed up by Wenders |
They're super smooth and hyper cool, Kings of New
York and the nicest bunch of gangsters that you'll ever meet. They're the Fun Lovin' Criminals and they rock. So why are they about to release an album of lounge songs? Rock sound joined them at
Los Angeles' infamous Viper Rooms to get the full story.
But we didn't give him a tape for about a year. We were just doin' our shit, being crazy bastards. But then we started playing gigs at the
Limelight. Whenever a band cancelled, we'd step in 'cos we were on the clock already as a barman and a receptionist, so they didn't have to pay us to play. Eventually at our fifth show I gave
Domonic a tape. He gave it to a friend of his who was in A&R at EMI Records. He liked the tape, told his boss to some and see us, and they all showed up at our sixth show. They looked like
they were having drinks, you know a lot of money, and after the show this guy comes up and says 'I'm the President of EMI and I want you to make a record, here's my card.' We were like
'Oh, OK'. Next day we go to EMI, we sit down and they were completely serious about it. We were amazed. So then we made the first record.
We recorded it in five days 'cos we were scared that the record company was gonna pull the plug on the record 'cos we weren't sure they really wanted us." 
