Music

Soda Pop Kids' Short Quiz

By Ellen Feig

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

With their new release Teen Pop Dream (Full Breach Kicks, 2007), The Soda Pop Kids deliver a raw, head banging record that combines the best of 80s rock with the energy of punk. Band members Diet D (guitar and vocals), Alan (drums), Tony Mengis (bubble bass), Jonny P. Jewels (oral tantrums/vocals) and Zachariah Tombstone (guitar and vocals) hail from Portland, Oregon but channel the sounds of The Clash with a touch of The Ramones on this their newest release. Diet D took a couple of minutes to answer my questions.

EF: You have all played with other indie bands. Tell us a bit about how you came together to form The Soda Pop Kids.

DD: Each one of us received his call in a very personal way. For some, it was either Stillwater, Oklahoma or bust. And others were simply looking for new opportunities to boogie down a conga line.

EF: Where did the name come from?

DD: A nasty group of riff-raff orphans banded together to commit a series of small time crimes. The local rag in Denver, Colorado called this buncha crunch The Soda Pop Kids. And that’s a fact.

EF: Your sound reminds me a bit of The New York Dolls during the height of the glam rock era – what era influences your music the most and why?

DD: Michael Keaton had a lot to do with it. He learned everything he knows from a guy named Phil Spector. That fine fella passed on the dream to the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Meat Loaf. It’s a trickle-down effect. We just want to sound like the finger snaps on a Shangri-Las 45.

EF: What’s on your ipod right now?

DD: Last song I heard was “Hang On To Your Ego” by the Beach Boys. It was raining cats and dogs at the time. I guess that’s the sound they make.

EF: Why the name Teen Pop Dream [for this album]?

DD: We thought it would be adhesive. Stick it on the end of the record with those syrupy female vocals, and it stick itself into your brain. We wanted that to be the last thing you hear on the record. The last thing you remember.

EF: Tell us about the relationship with Full Breach Kicks?

DD: Josh is a party pal and an official gentleman. He’s done a lot to help us out and is building a better label everyday. Always signing interesting bands and he’s very good to us.

EF: Future Plans?

DD: We’re hoping to get on the roster opening up for Eddie Money. We wrote our own version of his hit “Two Tickets to Paradise”. Our title cannot be mentioned in print, but we’re sure he’ll enjoy the new spices we threw on his beats.

For More info on Soda Pop Kids visit their MySpace page