It was a perfect rock’n’roll night in Austin, Texas—uncomfortably hot, swelteringly humid. The city’s entire bullet-belted punk scene is at the record store Trailer Space, awaiting a set from Swedish hardcore crew Fy Fan, while across town at Emo’s, the Miami/Atlanta-based band Torche is scheduled to play. Problem is, Torche drummer Rick Smith, 23, and bassist Jonathan Nuñez, 25, are also here at the store.
“What time is it?” Smith asks Jack Barfield, the Austin poster artist on whose floor the band members are crashing. “About nine,” Barfield replies. “Aw, plenty of time,” Smith says, grinning.
After all, everyone really wants to see Torche, the big-buzz “ stoner-pop” quartet who balance doomy sludge and thunder with ferociously
anthemic hooks. And sure enough, an hour later, the Trailer Space crowd, including the rhythm section, hits Emo’s; it’s like a crusty clown car emptying into a bar.
Since guitarist Juan Montoya, 36, and singer/guitarist Steve Brooks, 34, were in Florida underground metal legends Floor, and Torche have a brilliant second album, Meanderthal, on boutique metal label Hydra Head, many have dubbed them a metal band. But as blistering set-opener “Triumph of Venus” crashes into the ecstatic guitar riffs of “Grenade,” it’s clear this is something more. “I don’t
consider us metal,” says Brooks. “We’re more silly, like the Butthole Surfers.”
Montoya and Brooks knew they were destined to rock together when they were two of about 20 people at a Melvins show in South Beach (!) in 1991. Even though Florida has a killer heavy-music pedigree (Tampa’s death-metal scene spawned bands like Obituary and Deicide), Miami was a different world entirely. “Everyone at our high school listened to Depeche Mode, wore Guess jeans, and drove IROCs,” says Montoya. “Steve was the only one in a Death Angel T-shirt.”
Now, after more than a decade touring small clubs in the South and beyond, the duo could finally go overground with Meanderthal. But what’s up with that title? “We were just hanging around the studio, and [producer] Kurt [Ballou of Converge] said, ‘Man, you guys sure like to meander.’ I think Juan said, ‘Yeah, we’re meanderthals.’ It was like, ‘That’s awesome!’”
BYJOE GROSS
PHOTOGRAPH B Y MIS TY KEASLER
FAST FACTS
> Brooks has been openly gay for more than a decade: “I came out when I was 21, but I was into music and around different types of people, and nobody fucking cared.”
> The band members’ age difference is only a problem on the road. “They drive like maniacs,” says Brooks. “I’m like, ‘We’re towing a trailer and the van is in my name!’”
52 AUGUST 2008 WWW.SPIN.COM
Steve Brooks, Rick Smith, Jonathan Nuñez, and Juan Montoya, photographed for Spin in Houston, May 29, 2008
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