Fireside Chats: Mexican Hat Dance

In music, there’s always going to be those trends that seem to come and go with the tide. Emo has already been buried, as well as pop punk and garage rock. The new genre that seems to be taking over in full force is hardcore music. Whether you wanna call it hardcore, metal or screamo, its been taken to the masses by bands such as Underoath and Norma Jean.

Bowling Green is just one of the places it has made its mark and has even brought together a “supergroup” of local musicians to try their hand at it. Mexican Hat Dance consists of 5 members. Singer Josh Ryan and drummer Burl Dalton were members of the Glasgow hardcore band, Martha Divine. Guitarist Austin Albany, also of Martha Divine fame, currently plays in One Last Round. Guitarist Josh Hines has been in countless bands in the area, such as Technology Vs. Horse, Chest Rockwell, Pimpslap, and Lust For Diva. New to the instrument, bassist Tony Oswald is the singer for Vilejive as well as PYLOT. I had the chance to sit down with singer Josh Ryan to talk about life, liberty and the pursuit of spin kicking peoples faces.

J- Josh Ryan

K- Koufax

K- So first off, why the name Mexican Hat Dance?

J- “We got it from the movie “Nothing But Trouble.” Its a Dan Akroyd quote. All the names we came up with were from movies and our drummer Burl picked out the one that sucked the least.”

K- Describe your music.

J- “Simple. Hardcore, metal, whatever you wanna call it.”

K- What is your favorite song to play live?

J- Probably a new song called “He Loved Them Boots.”

K- Whats in your Cd player at the moment?

J- “The new Maylene and The Sons of Disaster, The Chariot, and The Acacia Strain.”

K- Who has influenced you the most vocally?

J- “Definitely Josh Scoggin, formerly of Norma Jean and current singer of The Chariot.”

K- Since the majority of you guys have other bands, do you take this band seriously, or is it all for fun?

J- “We’re not in it to get signed or anything. We’re just having fun, but we take ourselves seriously as far as shows go,”

K- Whats your opinion of the current surge of hardcore and metal bands in the area, as opposed to the blues and southern rock based music we’re used to?

J- “Its definitely flooded at the moment. Hardcore is the fad at the moment and everyone is picking up instruments and trying it. Bands like Maleficent, Countdown to Daytona and Martha Divine sorta started the whole thing a while back and there have been countless bands giving it a shot. It’s a fad that will most likely last about 4 more years. Enough for the people that are in hardcore bands to graduate high school.”

K- Which is easier for you, singing or screaming?

J- “Tony would tell you that its singing, but I would rather scream. For the most part, people that scream are people that couldn’t sing in the first place.”

K- What can we expect from your live show?

J- ” A lot of movement on stage. Since we’re a 5 piece and we play the music we do, its hard to just stand still. Its not just a show, its entertainment.”

K- How does it feel to be in a supergroup with other local musicians?

J- “Its a blessing to have as much experience and talent going into this as we have. we have two natural bass players playing guitar and one of the best vocalists in the area playing bass. It’s a lot of fun.”

K- What does the future hold for the band?

J- “We’d like to record a full length because we’re all used to recording EP’s. We want to record it somewhere nice like The Basement in West Virginia where Between the Buried and Me recorded. Something that we can look back on after we’ve gone on with our lives and be like “wow, this sounds amazing.”

You can contact The Mexican Hat Dance at http://www.myspace.com/themexhd

Visit our jukebox to hear Mexican Hat Dance’s Skinny Chesney

Koufax is the host of Local Shots every Wednesday night on Revolution 91.7. He can be contacted at sales@revolution.fm.