Just in time for the 4th of July, some fireworks, a Fatal Flying Guilloteens interview. Ernest Hemingway is a fan. They're known for wild live shows, Lone Ranger getups, fisticuffs, riots (explained below) and blistering, blissful bombast and racket. These Houston-based maniacs have released their second album for Estrus Records. A true masterpiece, it's violent and thrilling, just like a big ol' M-80. It's intricate and crazy, but the instructions are simple, when these guys are lit, BACK AWAY!

Ok. Are you a fan of Kung Fu movies, or did you just pluck the Fatal Flying Guilloteens as a name because it sounded cool.
The name of the band comes from two things...1) the kung fu movie of the same name and 2) the wu tang clan lyric, "like richard dawson/ survey says, 'you're dead,'/ FATAL FLYING GUILLOTINES chop off your fucking head!" that cinched it.

I've had a hard time finding any tour information on your band, or any information at all, for that matter. You're an enigma. What gives?
Just like you, buddy, we're lazy. We are touring in august for three weeks. Check Estrus.com for the dates soon. Info about who plays what is provided in each album. What kind of stuff are you looking for? our signs? height/ weight? Stop being so fucking creepy, Phil!

The information I did find, mentions that you've had some feuds and fights with other band in Texas. Is this overblown? Can you address these accusations? Do you guys have a bad rep?
Overblown a bit. We have been in a few scraps, but not just with texas bands. We had kind of a bad night with that shitty band Rainer Maria and just recently we had words with an even worse band called the Black Eyes, but it is only because they didn't get that our making fun of them was only jokes...well, not really....they sucked.

I read that you guys started out as a joke on Epitonic. Is that true?Can you explain the circumstances surrounding the beginning of the Fatal Flying Guilloteens?
My brother, Sean, was in a band from houston called "Junior Varsity" in which they dressed like cheerleaders. They played a show that we opened before we even had songs really written and we decided that since they dressed up we should too. That's why we did the lone ranger thing. We also played the three songs we knew and four of their songs that we had learned the night before. Over the next few nights we had people ask us about our band and how, "I hear you dress up like Lone Rangers!", They seemed to love it so much that we did it for a couple of years. we finally just got sick of it and stopped.

It's interesting that you're mentioning bands where the visuals match the name, or the subject matter, like Junior Varsity. A friend and I who played in a band together would always dream up these stupid side-projects during practice. For example, we discussed starting a gymnast-themed band, where we would dress in leotards. On stage we could have a pummel horse and some rings suspended above the drum set. Part of the show would be a gymnastics demonstration. We also talked about starting a "college rock" band, with a 1930s college "sport" theme, where we would dress up in racoon coats, leather football helmets, pennants and megaphones with "UNIVERSITY" and "STATE" printed on them. Another thing we talked about doing was a band that was actually a bad situation comedy, where each show was an episode, and we would build a set for a group of shows (or season). Each member would play a character, each show would have a script, there would be a plot that would drive the music along, a laugh track, all this stupid, hilarious stuff. Anyway, Junior Varsity, and your story about the beginnings of FFG, made me think of this. Have you ever been involved in a band like that, seen any good bands with an equally dumb gimmick or have you ever concocted any wierd, complicated band premises yourself?
A couple of the members of FFG used to be in a band called "Legion of Serpents" in which they dressed up like evil priests. By evil i mean they had taken bites of blood capsules just before going on. They also had a caldron on stage with dry ice in it so it smoked. It was really over the top and stupid. Actually, I don't think they ever played any shows... Just talked about it. It's funny that you mention the pennants and megaphone thing. My brother and I attended Stephen F. Austin State University for a year. We were so bored there that we almost started a band where the them was "pro SFA"- we'd dress in SFA baseball jerseys and whatnot and all the songs would be what a great thing it was to be a lumberjack (the school's mascot)...We were going to call it the "Spirit Twins" but we couldn't really practice in our dorm so it fizzled. That's about all i can think of.

Get Knifed sounds a bit more aggressive than "The Now Hustle For New Diaboliks. I also noticed you seem to have more violent imagery, song titles, and album title than before. "The Now Hustle" seemed to flirt with a cowboy thing. Do you try to tie your albums together thematically?
I don't know that there is a theme... At the time of recording "Diaboliks" we were still wearing the cowboy stuff so shawn just wrote about cowboy themes because he didn't want to write shit about being in love or trouble in the world or whatever. "Get Knifed" is a lot less straight forward. I don't know what half of the lyrics are about. we never discuss them.

The cover for "Get Knifed" is really great. Where did the imagery come from? Did you guys come up with the concept or did you just get a great designer to take care of it?
It's basically Michael Jackson's "invincible" with blood splattered on it. I like it though. this guy named Ballard in Austin did a bunch of posters for shows we would play in Austin and we all loved them. We got to talking to him and by the time it came to do artwork for the new album we asked him if he could do it. He sent us about a dozen ideas and we decided on that one. The great thing is he did it for a bottle of crown.

I also hear you have a lot of side projects. What other releases are out there for a FFG completist?
No releases. Roy (our bass player) plays in a Karp tribute band called "Defend the Ghetto". I'm in an R&B/ Meters-esque thing called "The Rhinestone Life". Both projects just play around town though.

Are the fake mustaches going to replace the Lone Ranger getups?
No. That was just for a photo shoot.

That's it. Pick up The Fatal Flying Guilloteens' latest, Get Knifed on www.estrus.com.

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