THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 6, 1996 TAG: 9605040049
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUE VANHECKE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
FOR A BELLIGERENT band infamous for slashing themselves with beer bottles and setting their equipment ablaze, raw fish can be pretty daunting.
``Our crazy friends up in Brooklyn bring these huge fishes to the show,'' said Larry May, vociferous vocalist for the Candysnatchers, Hampton Roads' foremost punk-rock outfit. ``I'd never met this guy before and he comes up to me wanting to know if he could hit me with a fish. I said, `Yeah, whatever.'
``Next thing you know, they had this huge fish up there onstage and it was flying everywhere. There was fish guts going everywhere.
``They came to the next show, too, and it was even worse. They brought even more fish and the whole place just cleared out. I ended up having to throw my clothes away. There was no way I was going to ride back in the van reeking of fish.''
It was the Candysnatchers' frequently gross, always out-of-hand live show, in fact, that landed the Virginia Beach foursome a contract with Safe House Records, the adventurous indie that launched the careers of Southern Culture On The Skids and the Lunachicks, among others.
``They were totally snotty, juvenile punks with an attitude and a sense of humor,'' Safe House president Jim Reynolds said after catching the 'Snatchers at a Manhattan nightclub last spring.
The group's self-titled debut - 16 furious tracks with titles like ``Fed Up With You'' and ``Sauced Again'' - hits retail bins Tuesday.
In true down 'n' dirty punk fashion, May said, the low-budget, high-velocity album, produced by Dean Rispler, formerly of porn-punkers The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, took only two alcohol-steeped days to record.
``We just went in there and bashed 'em out, just like we do live,'' he said. ``We just drank a lot of beer and had a good time. Dean did a really good job of getting the live sound.''
The disc was originally slated for release last September but the master tapes mysteriously turned up missing - either misplaced, recorded over or stolen. Bootleg 'Snatchers couldn't be more punk, ``but we haven't seen anything yet,'' May said. ``If (bootleggers) were going to put it out, they should've put it out by now because the real one'' - entirely remixed - ``is coming out.''
Though inspired by punk bands of the '70s and '80s - shades of the Ramones, Stooges, Dead Kennedys and Misfits color the 'Snatchers sound - the group rocks on the cutting edge. Their album includes a CD-ROM track, the video for the song ``Why I Drink,'' which can be viewed via computer. The split-screen clip combines live performance shots with footage of the band on a drinking binge in New York City, where they play monthly at CBGB and the Continental.
The Candysnatchers - the moniker was lifted from a 1973 B-movie about the kidnapping of a diamond store heiress named Candy - evolved in 1993 from the remnants of Fool's Holiday, another local band fronted by May with guitar supplied by Matt Odietus.
``That stuff was aggressive but it was depressing,'' May said. ``It wasn't any fun, it was real hell music. So Matt and I started the Candysnatchers (which includes bassist Willy Johns and drummer Barry Johnson). We just decided to get back to the rootsy, punk stuff that we liked to listen to.
``Now Matt writes about half the songs and I write a good quarter or so of them, too.''
Before landing their Safe House contract, which calls for another album currently in the works, the 'Snatchers put out five singles on their own and other small labels and appeared on three compilations.
For a long time, though, the frenetic foursome was banned from most Hampton Roads nightclubs because of their stage antics - shenanigans usually triggered when the band gets bored with a dull crowd.
``You want to break a bottle'' May said, ``but you can't. So you cut yourself instead.''
But when a crowd is moshing its approval, May and his bandmates are content with slightly less dangerous schtick - stagediving into the audience, colliding into one another, staggering across tabletops and careening down bar counters.
The 'Snatchers have mustered sweaty mosh pits all over America, including several junkets up the West Coast. Their current tour has paired them with Southern California punks the Humpers and British psychobilly band the Meteors.
And though the long days and nights from home, less-than-cushy accommodations, excessive pleasures and meager wages of a band on the road ``can get pretty wearing,'' May said, the 'Snatchers are in it for the long haul.
``We made it through our Push-the-Van-Cross-Country tour. We can't stop now.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by Dominik Huber
by CNB