From The Editor''s Floor: Mindless Self Indulgence

Posted by Rob Ortenzi on 16-Jul-08 @ 11:23 AM

Those guys and gals from MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE are a handful, whether they're casually spewing revelatory details about themselves or pure comedy gold. Because they're some of the coolest wiseguys we've had the luxury to roll tape on, we just couldn't leave these bits of wisdom to die in the shredder.

WHO SAID THEY WERE "PUNK," ANYWAY?
"We've been banned from a lot of places and then shockingly, invited back. CBGBs, before it closed, I think, banned us three times. They would throw us and our gear out on the street, and then say, 'Don't ever come back, Mindless Self Indulgence!'" --Kitty, drums

WHEN LIFE OFFERS NO IDOLS, YOU DON'T REMAIN IDLE
"What I've done with my role in Mindless is create something I never had growing up-I had a lack of inspiration. I wanted to see someone jump off the tallest balcony, I wanted to see someone being fearless and having fun, and I wanted to see someone fall down, get back up, and laugh it off. My first show with Mindless was with System Of A Down at the Hard Rock in Vegas. It was huge and fucking terrifying: I basically ran around and jumped up and down a lot. Even at that time, I'd never seen a woman who performed before in any band. Whenever I'd seen a woman in a band, she would just stand there the whole time, and it drove me crazy. Me and Kitty aren't about being the 'female musicians.' What we do on-stage is more about personality and less about gender." --Lyn-Z, bass

IN PURSUIT OF A QUIET LIFE--AND A WARM DRINK
"I want kids, but I don't want to be doing this while I've got kids. I don't want to be out on tour and not at home-being one of those dads wouldn't be fair. '"I'll finish [MSI] off before I squeak out anybody, and then I won't tell them I was ever in a band. I'll let them discover it for themselves someday, and it will be a weird superhero kind of thing. Like 'Oh God, my dad used to drink his own piss for entertainment.' And I'll be like, 'That piss-drinking put you through college.'" --Jimmy Urine, vocals

MENTAL ILLNESS FOR FUN AND PROFIT
"I got kicked out of high-school. After that I went through some weird shit and was diagnosed with some mental illnesses. That was a couple of years I don't remember too well, to be honest. I looked at music as something where you could do whatever you wanted to do. I was wrong, but at the time, I thought I could just be myself because there were a lot of weirdos in music. I was being sent to doctors, put on different medications, and being threatened with hospitalization. I thought, 'What can I do to be paid to be myself?' [In hindsight] that doesn't really work, because if you look at people who are totally trainwrecky, they've either died or don't function in a band-they get thrown out or whatever. But that definitely sent me in the right direction and gave me something to do. And I've gotten a lot better mentally.

"But I like a flamboyant personality, someone who is a real trainwreck and can't help it. Michael Jackson is one of those people. I just love looking at that guy. Not so much now, 'cause he hasn't done anything for a long time; more back when he was climbing trees and sleeping on the floor with kids." --Steve, Righ?, guitar




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