I interviewed Scott Corkern (aka King Spo-It) from shock-rock/noise legends The Spo-It's. He was nice enough to provide quite detailed, smart and funny answers (as well as a plethora of visual documents) about The Spo-It's history, their numerous and unsavory antics, musical trajectory, the art of wrecking havoc to a stage, his multi-disciplinary artistic pursuits and more.
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| King Spo-It living it up |
I'm sure many people out there are somewhat unfamiliar with Spo-It's, could you introduce the band for our readers and give a quick chronology of your musical/artistic activities?
King Spo-It - I started the band on St Patrick day 1990 with E Jason. We were both into Noise but we were both writers and we were looking for places to make a mess and a huge violent noisy performance. The idea is that if we were asked to play a venue again we had not gone far enough. But not being shit heads we would never do anything we were asked not to do. We would just think up something worse that they had not though of.
None of us played much at first but we all sort of learned our instruments, also as we got bigger real players asked to join. I really miss the days where we were playing noise with no formal learning players. But, that is the kind of thing is great when it is natural and kinda lame when you try and set it up.
I have always been a fan of the big performance. I always thought the “BAND” and music was second hand to the performance. Also with my love of chaos and Anarchy I would let the other Spo-it’s go all out with their own stupid wrong ideas. Often people would come to me and ask if they could cut themselves up at our show on stage, or eat the book of revelations while being beaten, or tie up audience members and pee on them. I said yes to all those things and we did them and more. I always say yes.
As far as the time line early on 90-92 we played a lot of Noise festivals like Lofty Aspirations in Pittsburgh and we got some plum opening gigs like Jad fair at the Khyber pass in Philadelphia PA. 93 we played CBGB’s for the second time and got an NYC following and we toured the west coast this lasted till about 95 or so. We were sounding like a super punk band at that point with some great players. The show was getting more out of hand all the time.
96 we got the gig doing “shock rock” with the Mentors and Gwar on the Jerry Springer show. In this time of the early internet TV was one of the few ways to get out to a larger audience. With the springer show vhs tape to send out we got actual gigs for large money.
1999 I had the thought that i had taken Spo-it’s as far as it could go. We stopped regular touring and only played a few large shows a couple of times a year.
2010 got the band back together for a 20th year anniversary show and tour. I tried to get Kirk to play the whole tour but we only got him for the Raleigh show.
As far as recordings we were selling cassettes recorded at practice then live show tapes video and audio all along. In 1991 we did a vinyl single “handgun” only 300 were printed. 1993 we went up to loho studios in NYC and recorded “ and your little dog too” that cd also included the tracks and extra tracks from the single. Then in 1995 we went back to LOHO and recorded “Free Sex”. Robert Williams from Captain Beefheart flew across the country to play drums on about half that CD. Those tracks were improvised in the studio. Rik Surly being our regular touring drummer did the other tracks we had worked out on the road.
Our “song writing”technique was to do improvised songs during our shows. Then if something sounded good i would have a recording of it and we could work on it.
I think it would be safe to say The Spo-It's are mainly a live band, correct?
Your live shows are quite, ahem... unique. Featuring everything from chainsaws, fire, strippers, breaking shit and wreaking havoc everywhere; that must be quite the fun (and also trouble sometimes).
What are some of your best/worst memories from playing live with the Spo-It's? Any crazy/interesting stories to share? If I should take a guess, I'd say by now you must have been banned from pretty much every local club.
More of a moving riot than a live music show.
I once booked bands at the bay street bar in Savannah GA and the only band i could not book was my own. After i had been the booker for about a year i talked the owner into a halloween show. We were on our best behavior and the show was a sell out so he let me book Spo-it’s again. That show we did rockets, nudity, and a live mouse canon. The home town crowd was worse than we were and broke every piece of furniture in the bar. After the show i went to the owner and he paid me. I asked if he wanted some help with the broken furniture “NO we made 6000$ at the bar”. Thus i was the booker again and Spo-it’s were banned from future shows.
The Scumfest shows at the Caboose in Raleigh NC were some of the best we ever played. The venue had been very supportive of us. They had a few things they did not like in our shows but they gave us more freedom than anyone. A lot of the stuff we did there was straight up illegal in North Carolina. Out last scumfest show was the best. Dick Delicious and the tasty testicles was our opening act and rhythm section. We added our crazy beating and pee show to their strippers in a venue that was so packed that there was no room to move. There is a great video of the whole thing on Vimeo.
Some of the great shows were when the venue had no idea who was playing. We played the cage in Ridgeland SC. It was a mexican bar during the week days and on the weekends they did all ages metal shows for the regional metal kids. We were asked to play by this local metal act Sheldon in support of them. They had a big following and the young kids had no idea who we were. During our show it was like we had cast some sort of satanic violence spell on the crowd of 16 year olds. One of the big doughy guys started a fight with this little Guatemalan guy who beat his damn ass. We played over it all not stopping just getting more violent ourselves. After the show the kids were looking at us with these huge eyes. I ended up having some oral sex with this girl who looked to be 18 on the pool table right in the middle of the bar. I got a tap on my shoulder. It was our guitarist Blake saying the barkeep asked nicely if i would stop.
You're based in Carolina, as far as I know anyway. Please tell us a bit about your surroundings, any comments about the musical scene there?
I've heard a few local musicans praising the Spo-It's, such as Dixie Dave (Weedeater), Kirk (Buzzov*en), and people from Sourvein.
I worked as an architect in Charlotte NC 1984-5 when i got out of Clemson. When i was there i was at every show at the Milestone Club and that is where i met a 17 year old Kirk. At that point he had a band called Sewer Trout. I still have the cassette he gave me. Myself i was a music fan at that point and i was doing drawings of the bands during the shows. i have a large pile of those sketchbooks.
Antiseen was the big punk band at the time. There were a lot of new wave stuff going on like Fetchin bones. Then i moved to Hilton Head again to do architecture. At the time there was NOTHING going on. I started booking shows so that I could have shows to attend. We did lots of locals like Porn Orchard, Bedlam hour, roy g biv and Dead Elvis. As far as touring bands we did The Circle Jerks, Agnostic front and Government issue. While i was doing those shows i met a 17 year old E Jason who used to deal acid at my shows. I would let him in free and he would pay me the cover charge on the way out. At that time the art school in Savannah was just starting up and it was drawing artistic weirdos to Savannah. Bars started doing shows but there were only a few bands and they all did a various degree of suck. I met up with E Jason again. He had been in Athens GA for a year or two and had been in a noise band Peach Of Immortality.
Our first gig in town we got the booker fired and ourself banned. Then we moved on to one failing bar after another one until we got too notorious locally to surprise a bar owner. Then i started booking shows at the Lamppost which had been a strip bar but had fallen so far as to not have any strippers just old women begging the punters to buy them drinks. It was also a front to distribute Heroin. I booked that venue for years. In that venue i booked Momento Mori for the first time with 17 year old Phillip Cope of Kylesa and Damad. I told him his band sucked, but he was young and i would keep booking his band as long as they would play first of the night for free. Then there was Damad. Victoria had a problem with the sexual content of our show (most likely sex in general). We did not play so much on the same bill but we went to each other’s shows. There was this band GAM with this great front man Keith Kozel, their music was kinda old school 70 rock with a pinch of everything that was going on at the time musically thrown in. In two words it had been done. Two more things they had in common with us: Kevin F. Rose was an architecture student ( now architect) like me, and they did a theatrical show. But i will say their shows were ok but very very safe. When i was booking i would book us on the same night, them playing the velvet Elvis, us at Kevin Barry’s or the bay street bar. One tour we did in the midwest we ended up playing the same venues as Gam. They were in support of some out of the country rockabilly band. We were headlining. Kevin (who got drunk and bit me one time) i heard got very tired of playing in our shadow and having to answer lots of questions about us.
When Velvet Elvis got sold we ended up playing one show in the renamed Jynx club. The murder junkies with Jeff Clayton was on top of the bill with the 10th GG death anniversary show. And of course we got banned.
There was this other great band Clown Knife. With the Safer brothers playing together. Today Adam Safer has a two piece band Jewwop. They are two fucking geniuses and the records are well worth looking up. Both Brutal and expert playing.
As far as the entire music scene in savannah in the 90’s there were about 100 people who might show up at your show. When we did DRI and Acid bath with Spo-it’s and Damad we did 330 paid. That was the biggest show i could remember. But there were lots of players in town and a lot of crazies both of the art school type, the gay military type and the trailer park white trash type.
Antiseen was the big punk band at the time. There were a lot of new wave stuff going on like Fetchin bones. Then i moved to Hilton Head again to do architecture. At the time there was NOTHING going on. I started booking shows so that I could have shows to attend. We did lots of locals like Porn Orchard, Bedlam hour, roy g biv and Dead Elvis. As far as touring bands we did The Circle Jerks, Agnostic front and Government issue. While i was doing those shows i met a 17 year old E Jason who used to deal acid at my shows. I would let him in free and he would pay me the cover charge on the way out. At that time the art school in Savannah was just starting up and it was drawing artistic weirdos to Savannah. Bars started doing shows but there were only a few bands and they all did a various degree of suck. I met up with E Jason again. He had been in Athens GA for a year or two and had been in a noise band Peach Of Immortality.
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| drawing of Dixie Dave by Scott Corkern |
When Velvet Elvis got sold we ended up playing one show in the renamed Jynx club. The murder junkies with Jeff Clayton was on top of the bill with the 10th GG death anniversary show. And of course we got banned.
There was this other great band Clown Knife. With the Safer brothers playing together. Today Adam Safer has a two piece band Jewwop. They are two fucking geniuses and the records are well worth looking up. Both Brutal and expert playing.
As far as the entire music scene in savannah in the 90’s there were about 100 people who might show up at your show. When we did DRI and Acid bath with Spo-it’s and Damad we did 330 paid. That was the biggest show i could remember. But there were lots of players in town and a lot of crazies both of the art school type, the gay military type and the trailer park white trash type.
How would you define the kind of music that Spo-It's does, and what are some of your influences? Musically I'd say you have a quite unique sound that is close to noise rock and no-wave.
Any past or present favorites to recommend?
I always wanted to do something unique and original, so there would not be a genre as such. However i found once we had played a city once or twice there would be Spo-it’s clones on the underbid. Two of the great ones were Badluck 13 Riot extravaganza, and meth 25. One time we had this band from texas open for us. Then a year later i got this music mag in texas when we were on tour. They had stolen all of our act they had seen. That would be fine but they just sucked so hard at it.
My personal influences are in random order Einstürzende Neubauten, Faust, Can, Captain Beefheart, Velvet underground (mostly for the show), Zappa, GG, Killdozer, the butthole surfers, Black Flag, Fear, Circle jerks, Ornette Coleman, Joe Coleman, charlie parker, John Coltrane, Lisa Suckdog, Lydia Lunch, james black and the whites, Nick Cave, beastie boys, Public enemy, Nwa, Black Randy and the MetroSquad ( very underrated ), the Mentors, the child Molesters, Crash Worship, Jon Wayne, and Johnny Cash.
But with influences toward the band we all came from very different places. Chuck our producer was a clash head and a genius guitarist, blake another of our guitarist could only barely play metal solos, John dunn (truckadellic) had a funky bass sound. Icy mike cannot play bass and has no musical sense. We have him play through a delay and a super fuzz sounds great live. Ash our sax player loves archenemy and Ornette Coleman.
So we all play what we like all at once and loud.
Recommendations …….. Big Lurch ….. motherfucker ate people. There is a great podcast of his legal case / story .
Aside from music, I noticed you have other pursuits like sculpture, plastic arts, and even stand up comedy.
Talk to us a bit about that side of your activities, any good jokes to share?
I went to school for architecture. That is how i make my cash. I have my own practice and it gives me a lot of freedom to do what i want. So i am trained in all of the visual arts during school and have kept up with them throughout my life. Currently i am doing nude paintings, lost wax casting in aluminum and wood carving. I am also doing a comic book with my friend elvis chicken and my nephew parker.
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| "Elvis Chicken" comicbook |
I designed this house in Spring Island:
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| architecture by Scott Corkern |
Here is a new joke i wrote:
During the plague i have had lots of time to develop new interests.
I have developed three
Film making, astronomy and pornography…
My new film "white dwarves entering black holes. "
What about the future of the band? Any recordings in sight?
Playing live will be on hold for a while obviously. Any live activities planned after this pandemic shit goes away?
Well i have a new record written. It is going to be called “ Full Retard”. No idea when i will get the time / money to record it. I guess i would just press a vinyl and put it online for free.
I have been doing sax / vocals with this Swedish band “ Gran Mal X “. I like it because i just record my shit , send it off and Mattias fucks it up good. Mixing is just a full on migraine pain for me. We have been thinking of doing a european tour for Spo-it’s. My buddy / Bass player John Dunn was on Finish TV two years ago. Mattias can hook us up in Copenhagen . It would be a slim list of Spo-it’s to fly out. I know i will cause hurt feelings for everyone i have to leave. We would have to live off the land to get some foreign whores for our shows. I was thinking of the line up with Me, Chuck on guitar, John on bass, Rik on drums, and Ash on Sax.
We almost toured Japan in support of the Boredoms but the shows went sideways like they sometimes do. But one thing i am getting old. Last time i went out it took three days in bed to recover from the shows. So perhaps i could perform like Dave thomas of Pere Ubu in a wheelchair. Also Pere Ubu is a great influence and i forgot it. That is what happens when you make a list. I would have to rent equipment and build a grinder tar once i get into europe.
Another recommendation is Rik Surly’s New Band “Thunderchief” Very brutal!!
Thank you Mr. King Spo-It for this interview. Be well.
Any closing comments/shout outs/fuck offs?
Last thing i would say is that people need to participate in their own damn lives. Get out and do something. If you come to one of my shows bring something to break. Better a old style tube tv.
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| "3 woman in masks" painting by King Spo-It |
interesting Spo-It's links (provided by King Spo-It):
Spo-it’s live at Scumfest 98
Some weird X-rated shit
More footage from Scumfest 98
other links:
King Spo-It's youtube channel
Spo-It's @facebook
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