Interview: Pornstore Janitor
Nada Mucho Interview
Q @ A with Portland’s Pornstore Janitor
Nada Mucho’s hipper fans might remember the name Pornstore Janitor on account of their stint opening for the White Trash Debutantes last spring at a NadaMucho.com-sponsored show at Seattle’s Chop Suey.
In addition to playing a great set to modest crowd that night, the Janitors turned out to be pretty cool guys. In anticipation of their Friday January 17th show at Zak’s with Millhouse and the Load Levellers, we chatted with frontman Janitor Jon.
Nada Mucho: First things fucking last, got anything else to add?
Janitor Jon: We’re playing Zak’s in Seattle on January 17th with the Load Levellers, Millhouse, and 800 Octane. Che ck out our website for all the last minute updates! (www.pornstorejanitor.com)
NM: Have any of you guys actually worked as a Pornstore Janitor? Nada Columnist Reggie Gilmer did a few years back. He has some gruesome stories about defecation in the video booths. He eventually got fired for fucking and smoking dope on the job.
JJ: No we haven’t, I actually applied to be one but got rejected! Believe me, since starting this band and living in Portland, the porn capital of the world, I’ve met tons of pornstore janitors. Even found out my own cousin was one! I thought on the job fucking and smoking dope were prerequisites for getting a job as a pornstore janitor…maybe that’s why I didn’t get hired!
NM: Describe your ideal show. How long is it, how many people are there, what happens…
JJ: Probably playing one of those outdoor festivals somewhere, preferably in Brazil. Brazilians go nuts over that kind of stuff, just watch Sepultura’s “Third World Chaos” video. 1000’s of fans rockin’ out right next to a giant tire fire and no one gives a shit.
NM: At your Nada Mucho-sponsored Seattle show in May, you ended your set by saying “at least some people still know how to rock.” Do you think the mainstream media’s recent infatuation with bands like the Hives and the Vines might create more fans for punk bands like Pornstore Janitor? Are these even the fans you want?
JJ: We get fans from all walks of life, I’ve sold CD’s to truck drivers, strippers, rednecks, metalheads, crusties, janitors, even a plastic surgeon once. The fans are our fuel. We’d be happy to steal some Hives fans, rock is what it all boils down to, any true rock fan would like us both.
NM: What’s the Pornstore Janitor message?
JJ: Pornstore’s message is to just live life the way you want to live it. Do what you wanna do, live it up, make it right, whatever suits you. Don’t listen to anyone but yourself.
NM: Not even your mom?
JJ: Especially your mom! If I listened to her, I’d be a doctor or lawyer or something by now and Pornstore Janitor would have never existed.
NM: Hey, maybe you’ll know…what’s wrong with popular music these days?
JJ: It seems to have lost all originality. We’ve got 1000 bands that sound like Blink 182 and crap like that. It was good when Bad Religion came out because there weren’t a lot of bands with that sound then. It’s like you hear a new song on the radio and it’s good, you hear that same song 20 times a day on the radio and it sucks. It’s easy to burn out on repetition or anything your force fed.
NM: How’d you guys get hooked up with Scooch Pooch?
JJ: We just sent them our CD and showed them that we’re a hard working touring band who’s paid our dues.
NM: Name five albums that get a lot of airplay in the tour van.
JJ: Anything by: Betty Blowtorch, Turbonegro, Nashville Pussy, Ramones, AC/DC.
NM: You mentioned that you were using a fill-in drummer for a couple shows back in July. Did your other guy quit or did you have to sack him?
JJ: Our old drummer had too much other stuff going on, we need someone who can put the band first on their list of priorities. So we figured it was time to upgrade our drummer. We had Arjay from the Catholic School Girls filling in for us for a while, which was especially hard on him during our tour with CSGs because he was playing two shows every night. But now we’ve got our newest member, Little John, playing drums full time.
NM: Are there any other Portland bands we should know about?
JJ: Ya there’s a few killer bands from here like Catholic School Girls, SK & the Punk Ass Bitches, Bast, Lopez, and who hasn’t heard of Dead Moon or Poison Idea?
NM: You’d be surprised, actually…got any non-punk rock favorites? Maybe a nice James Taylor comp or the first Days of the New album?
JJ: Oh ya of course. I like a lot of classic stuff too…Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, Sabbath. We’ve even been known to cover Queen’s “Tie Your Mother Down.”
NM: OK let’s start with the basics. What, exactly, is Pornstore Janitor all about?
JJ: We a play no-bullshit, fuck you in the face brand of demolition punk rock n’ roll. Imagine the mid-80’s just before American punk rock went astray. We’re in that vein,we certainly aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel, but I’ll be damned if we can’t make it spin a little harder.
