“Thanks for showing interest in our little hillbilly act.”
The first words offered to me by a beautiful band. Beauty to begin with, because there’s omnipresent virtue in gratitude; some even say heaven. Beauty thereafter, because the music is true; and so is their story. They’re a good ol’ country band. Two brothers, from a working class desolation. A real band, an honest band. They’re The Midnight Screening.
They’re very much a Redondo Beach band, having gained most of their following by playing at Kegs every weekend, and being taken under the wing of local peers Barley Legal. Yet, Chuck and Matt Herman (ages 25 and 23) were born and raised in Signal Hill, California, on an oil field.
Chuck reflects on the lifestyle of living on the field. “I don’t wanna say white trash… it’s kinda tough. There’s a lot of bikers, Hell’s Angels… you observe it, a working class lifestyle… it’s hard work, but it’s honest work, and that’s what we try to do with our band… We always tie our upbringing into our music, ‘cuz it really helped shape it… sometimes it’s really crass to people, but it’s honest… We’re not bullshitting songs, the songs we write come from actual experience.”
Before Chuck played bass guitar and kick drum in this country outfit, sharing vocals with his brother Matt, who plays acoustic guitar, hi-hat, and harmonica, they were both honing in their chops within the Punk/Rock sphere (a la Bad Brains, Fugazi, Minor Threat). In their younger youth, they hadn’t quite begun to evoke the grit beneath their nails and dirt below their boots to make music. And then there was Mr. Herman Sr.
“My old man was a character,” says Chuck. “The closest thing to Clint Eastwood. The main character that Clint Eastwood plays in Gran Torino is just like my f…ing dad, verbatim. It’s crazy! If you wanna say the term outlaw, that was him. My dad lived that lifestyle… a very loving man, but if you got on his bad side he could be a helluva dick… He ran with really hardcore bastards, and embodied that lifestyle… If it’s good or bad – and a lot of it’s bad – but the freedom aspect is something that I admire, pretty much do what you want to do.”
The nature of roots Country music, which is the type these boys play, presents a paradox in and of itself: the songs are typically hard, coarse, and brutal, while also carrying a soft tenderness that could bring tears to the Devil’s own eyes. Mr. Herman Sr. seems to have embodied exactly that. The honorable outlaw, the hard teddy bear.
Even though their father wasn’t particularly into music, Chuck says, “Whenever he’d come home from work, he’d have a beer and put on Country music. He’d put on ‘Take This Job and Shove It’ [by David Allan Coe] everyday when he’d come home… We couldn’t f…ing stand it! My sister and Matt and I would sit around and make fun of it… but one day I found his Hank Williams album, Matt and I, and we’d kind of joke about it… Before long, Matt was singing Hank Williams songs… and we moved away from Punk. And now I love old school Country, I can’t get enough of it!”
Some people refer to The Midnight Screening’s sound as “Punk-Country,” which Chuck attributes to a high-energy element carried over from their Punk-Rock background; though, he doesn’t feel that the energy actually transcends genres.
He says, “We’re pretty much just a Country band, maybe with a modern twist. Some people call us Punk-Country, but I just think it’s old school Country music.”
It’s no surprise that the brothers soon found considerable direction from Country and Folk heroes like Steve Earle, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Gillian Welch, Hank III, and Woodie Guthrie – basically, all who Chuck calls all the old school Country guys that kept it honest. But it all stems from the influence and upbringing by their gruff old man, without which Chuck claims they wouldn’t even have the balls to be doing a two-man band.
Chuck derived the name from a college film class, where they talked about off-the-cuff midnight movies like Eraser Head. With a nod to the off-kilter film genre, he thought The Midnight Screening would be a cool name. “I always wanted a folk project, but wanted it to be kinda different. Kinda like, bring excitement back into it… When a lot of people think about Folk or Country music, they think about downtrodden, boring songs. We kinda wanted to prove them wrong.”
The Midnight Screening has one EP called “Chasing Vincent Wolf” (2008), and are finishing up a new EP/LP titled “Raisin’ Glasses and Taxin’ Asses,” due for late spring/early summer release. They’re performing this Saturday, Mar. 10 from 3-6 P.M. with Barley Legal at Kegs in Redondo Beach (located at 120 International Boardwalk), and Friday, Mar. 16 at Brixton on the Redondo Beach pier with Gamblers Mark, Crown City Bombers, and Gino and the Lone Gunmen. Their debut EP can be heard on DirtyHippieRadio.com. More info on the band at facebook.com/themidnightscreening.
