The Stay Awake exposed!

Category: Blog — @ 1:18 pm January 23, 2008

After walking away from the interview with The Stay Awake last week I figured I had a stone-lock exclusive. The band had told me they’d never been interviewed before. Then a couple days later at The Waiting Room, City Weekly writer Chris Aponick tells me he’s doing a feature on The Stay Awake for The CW as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if Niz has something in the pipeline at the OWH. So the Stay Awake go from nothing to everything press-wise in a week. Now all they have to do is break up after their CD is released to complete the typical rock ‘n’ roll circle.

Anyway, here’s my stab at capturing the band in print. Steve, Robert and Mario talk about their mysterious origins, their new CD and why they do what they do. (read it here). To give you a taste of the overall tone of the piece, here’s the first few paragraphs.

Omaha punk trio The Stay Awake has been around for five years. So why is this the first time you’ve read about them?

Probably because the band has never done an interview before, nor has it ever really wanted to.

“We never did much to promote ourselves,” said bassist Robert Little over beers at O’Leaver’s last Tuesday night. “It’s just how it is.”

“It’s all a fucking game,” said frontman/guitarist/cynic Steve Micek. “I can’t do shameless self-promotion.”

“For me, our music is a take-it-or-leave-it thing,” added drummer Mario Alderfer.

On the surface, they sound like they don’t care — about the band, you, or if people listen to their music. But that’s not entirely true. “I could say that people liking our music isn’t a motivation,” Alderfer added, “but I like it when they do.” (continued)

It goes on like that for another 800 words or so. I had an editor read the piece who told me they should be called The Self Deprecating Three. These guys really don’t care if you like what they do, which is a shame because they do it better than anyone in town. They were on my list of the 20 best bands of ’07, and for good reason. Find out why on Saturday at The Waiting Room with Bombardment Society and Dance Me Pregnant. The band said they’d be happy if just their friends showed up along with a few other people. I think there’s going to be a few more people there than that, now that they’re media whores… And if you’re wondering, the article’s photo was indeed taken in the shitter at O’Leaver’s. No idea who that guy is taking a wizz, but he’s a star now.

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