When I first saw the name Norco Lapalco on a flyer, I knew something was up. Any band that was going to draw its name from the polar opposite and outermost reaches of the city– planting their flag on the scene like they were fucking Iberville and Bienville themselves– had better bring it strong or get laughed out of town. But from the first note struck that fateful night I caught them at Siberia, I knew they meant business. They rolled through a mesmerizing set that combined Minutemen fast-funk and Van Halen guitar theatrics with Sonic Youth noise jams and a vocal assault led by a singer who could’ve been the long-lost southern cousin of Poly Styrene. That’s a lot of throwback reference points but don’t think for one second that they sound dated. The collective age of the members might rival the bicentennial we just celebrated for the War of 1812, but if Norco Lapalco was a bottle of wine, it would be a rare and delicious treat, uncorked and swirling around our fishbowl town.
At the center of it all is guitarist, singer, lyric and riff writer Lou Thevenot. He made his mark in the early Louisiana punk scene with bands like Black Problem and Lump, groups which embraced the wackiest and most surreal fringes of a cultural movement already on the edge. D. Boone’s spirit especially haunts Thevenot in the way he attacks his guitar, shouts his lyrics and most importantly, has what Mike Watt would simply call “righteous perspective.”
It’s one benefit of getting older and is also a trait shared by all of the band members. Bassist Andrew Dalio, who played in the Black Problem with Thevenot, is a proud stay-at-home dad with a cute nickname for his daughter. Michael Joseph, who is going to sub for Andrew while he tends to family business out of state, is a candy maker, self described Bywater shepherd and also plays with fellow long-toothers Egg Yolk Jubilee. Lead guitarist Laurie Shefsky, a physical therapist whose patients probably benefit from such nimble fingers, is best known for her previous band Evil Nurse Sheila, another great ‘90s-era NOLA band that put all the genres in a pipe and smoked it. Vocalist Alba Houston, whose voice sounds amazing even in the halls of their Fountainebleau rehearsal space, is the lone first-timer in the group. A Texas transplant, Houston shifts between high end restaurant work and museum security (with a background in art history, so she can both tell you about the work and take you down if you get too close). The drums are handled by a committee of 3 veterans of the throne, Michelle Lacayo, Mike Odgen and Jason Portera. Lacayo has drummed for Manwitch and Terranova and finds herself hauling set furniture around for the film industry during the day; Ogden was in Nut and House of Surf and drives an 18 wheeler and Portera was the beat-maker behind Weedeater and Pitts vs. Preps and has stage managed for the Nevillles for a while.
So there’s a lot going on there, both on a human existence level and musically as well. ANTIGRAVITY sat down with Thevenot, Dalio, Houston, Shefsky and Lacayo one night in their practice space to talk about some of this past, what it means to take shots at the city’s more eccentric neighborhoods and iconic figures and some of the experiences they had to live through to arrive at songs like “You, Me, and Huey P” and “One Shoe,” both of which can be found on the eponymous album they’re releasing this month. As can be expected from a band with a lot to say and a lot of ground to cover, it was all over the place.
I wanted to talk about some of the bands you were in before Norco Lapalco. One was the Black Problem. Were you called ‘Harry Lee and the Black Problem’?
Lou Thevenot: No. You’re thinking of that artist guy [Skylar Fein]. It was never called that; we did have a song about Harry Lee.
Andrew Dalio: We started in ’85, senior year of college for me. And I knew Lou from high school because we went to Jesuits together.
LT: Nobody heard of us for at least a year and a half. We weren’t in any of the cliques and we didn’t really know anybody who could get us a gig. So we just practiced for a year without playing a party or anything.
What was having that name like? Where did that come from?
LT: I was taking notes in a New Orleans history class and some mayor had a problem with the black population, so “Black Problem” sounded like a good name for a band. We had a couple songs about racism but it didn’t really come up. There was one time where some skinheads came and started some shit. But it wasn’t a running thing.
AD: The thing was, the freakin’ racist skinheads thought we were in with them just because of the name and it was like did you listen to any of it?
The other bands that you all were in were Mermaid Lounge-era bands. That was a great club and atmosphere. Do you think the music scene was better then or now?
Michelle Lacayo: Back then. I just think the music was better.
Laurie Shefsky: There was more of a cohesive scene. And everyone was friends.
You don’t think it’s like that now?
LT: Nobody’s friends with us! [laughs] It doesn’t seem like people go out to see bands as much as they used to. Or maybe just not our band. I think there’s maybe a more fragmented scene.
You really think it was better back then? I think it’s better now.
LT: All old people think that.
AD: I’m having a lot more fun now and back in those days we were losing so much money I really didn’t miss it after that.
LT: What I don’t see now is a place like the Mermaid where… I mean, I go out and see shows a lot. Me and my wife, that’s what we do for entertainment. I read the listings every week and look for a band with an interesting name, look up their Myspace and see what they sound like. So I go out to clubs a lot and there isn’t any place where there’s that vibe of people just hanging out, looking to see good music.
Music is kind of a young person’s game. Is it hard to be in a band now that everyone’s older and has families and jobs and other responsibilities?
LT: We hardly ever have practice… at least half the time we don’t have all of us. It’s hard for everybody to be here at the same time.
AD: But having said that, Mikey, Laurie and I especially have never really stopped playing. We’ve always had bands and stuff, since the ‘80s.
Also, having a rhythm section by committee, is it hard to keep moving? Are you stuck learning the same songs over and over again or are you able to keep writing?
LT: Well one thing is we’ve all known each other a long time and we just kind of have a good feel for each other and we speak the same language. I’ve actually been kind of surprised that we can learn the songs so fast. That has been the least of our problems, I think.
AD: Plus it’s like parallel development. Since we started playing, we were all into the same kind of stuff to begin with, so it’s flowing from everything we started out with.
ML: This music totally reminds me of the Mermaid days; it brings you back to that time.
Alba, you’re kind of the odd person out as this is your first band. What’s your story?
Alba Houston: Yeah, I’m new in town! [Laughs] I’m not new in town. But it is my first band, although I have messed around with singing all my life. I came from a country background (coming from Texas) and sang a lot when I was younger and then stopped. And then a few years ago I decided that it was something I was really missing and wanted to do. So I started working with different people and playing open mic nights and different stuff like that. I worked up a bunch of stuff, mostly country. A lot of Wanda Jackson, who is a primary influence and I know a whole lot of her songs. But then this came about; they were getting stuff together and Laurie’s girlfriend and I worked together and she suggested me. So they asked me to come see what I could do.
When you’re young, it’s easy to be starry-eyed about where you want your band to go. Since y’all are all older and experienced in how the music scene really works, where do you see this band taking you?
LS: I’d love to tour, play festivals.
ML: I like the idea of festivals. Sometimes it’s a drag to play so late all the time. It’s a refreshing feeling to play during the day. You get a different crowd, different people. And people dance more during the day!
Michael Joseph: And you’re home by sundown.
LT: I really started doing this just for fun. I like how the B-52’s (remember them?) started their band because they were in kind of a boring town; they had to make their own fun. And it’s not boring in New Orleans or anything but this is better than anything else I could do for recreation. I get to hang out with wonderful people and it’s fun… I don’t have any lofty goals at all, man. I don’t have any goals, period.
AD: I just look at each gig as a party, right? Party at Banks Street on Saturday.
MJ: Ooh, I got thirty bucks? Woohoo!
You make that much? Impressive!
MJ: It’s spent before we leave the place, you know?
Everyone in New Orleans gets almost tribal about where they live, so being a very geographically-themed band, both in your name and the stuff you sing about, is playing with people’s emotions. Is that something you were aiming for or just a by-product?
LT: I started writing “You, Me, and Huey P” just being aggravated at 9th Warders. And I thought, I’m not going to write a song just making fun of these people– it’s just kind of a lame thing. But then I would hear 9th Ward people just talking shit about Metairie. And then I got friends who live in Metairie who won’t go to the Hi-Ho to see a band: “Oh you’re going to get killed! They’re all fucking crazy!” And then Westbank assholes… So I wrote the song, making fun of everybody equally and tied it all together. The whole Huey P Long thing is like, we shouldn’t hate each other at all. Everybody just seems to dismiss each other. But I saw Clint Maedgen at the Starbucks in Metairie, so there’s hope for everybody!
In talking about “You, Me, and Huey P” you definitely skewer the 9th Ward and Metairie, Harahan and Jefferson Parish in general; that’s all pretty low-hanging fruit. But what about Uptown and Mid-City? Why don’t they get theirs?
LT: The song was already six minutes long! What am I going to do?
If you had your chance, what would you say?
LT: [Laughs] You don’t want to know… I got enough people pissed off at me.
LS: We have a song about Uptown: “One Shoe.”
ML: That’s a great story. That’s Alba’s story. I mean it’s not great that it happened but it all came to light for me in the studio after I heard it eight times.
AH: It wasn’t uptown; it was downtown… “One Shoe” is an autobiographical song about an incident involving me that happened one night, very late night/early morning. But the bottom line is: I got attacked and it was an attempted rape. And I got beat up really badly and… it’s an awesome song now! [Laughs] So the final line of the song is “I wore that asshole’s boot print for six months!” And that’s from when he kicked me; and I did have his shoe print on my leg for six months.
That song expresses most of its frustration at the NOPD, though.
AH: Well yes, they were not helpful. I didn’t understand why but… the guy that attacked me– and I wasn’t even alone, I was with friends, luckily. And one of them ended up saving the day because this guy had me down on the ground, beating me up and all of a sudden this high-heeled boot goes flying by and the guy’s nose was gone. And that took the fight out of him. He was no longer interested in what he had started! So then he left; and he left his blood-drenched shirt and staggered off with his friend! He wasn’t alone and his friend had been trying to stop him the entire time… it was a really bizarre situation. So we get the cops and they come and pull this whole “Well, what’d you expect dressed like that?” kind of number (I had been at a costume party). So we get that reaction and then, as the line in the song goes: “As last resort / we’ll fill out a report / but just try to make it short.” And it really was like that. Could you please write something down? Seriously, we really want to file this!
And the guy had followed us for a while and was very angry; his car had gotten stolen (we had heard his whole conversation before he decided to attack me). So we’re telling them all that and they were like “Oh well wait, is it this guy who had his car stolen earlier and he looks like this?” And we said “Yes, that’s the guy!” And they said “Oh yeah, we took that report.” “Great! So you know exactly who he is.” And then they’re like “Eh… not really.” “Look, he went this way and he’s walking (because his car is stolen) and he has no shirt and he has no nose; I think you can find him.” They were like “Oh, this way?” and so they very slowly turned in the opposite direction and crawled away. And that’s the last we ever heard of it.
After the incident, as someone who’s not from New Orleans, how does that affect your perception?
AH: I moved here from Austin and coincidentally the year that I moved here USA Today did a comparison of the two cities. Austin for the year had 33 murders and New Orleans had over 300. All these different things as far as opportunity and jobs… and my mom was like “Are you crazy? What are you doing?” But I started coming here when I was real young (I was six years old) and I always wanted to be here. I’ve been here a long time; I moved here 17 years ago.
LT: Between Lump and this
band I didn’t do anything musical, really. Just farting around a bit. And when you start writing songs again, it’s not easy. Especially lyrically. And I met Alba when she joined the band and she’s just had a very eventful life and tells me her stories–
AH: –And I run my mouth!
LT: She tells me everything and I’m thinking every time she’s talking, “Oh, that’s a song.”
AH: His wife warned me, “Be careful what you tell him, it’ll be a song!”
Some people think that being so localized and so focused on the city can limit your reach. Is it something you think about?
LT: Because I don’t have any aspirations other tha
n having fun with my friends, I don’t worry about it. I don’t think that at this point in my life there’s any kind of real big commercial opportunity out there for me, so I’m free to write whatever lyrics I want… If just one person from another state would come see us, I’d start writing about other states!
“You, Me, and Huey P” is clearly the hit; it’s on the radio a bunch. And it’s so good because the 9th Ward and Metairie are easy targets but you found a way to make it extra special. Have you gotten any flak for it or expressed any grievances?
LT: Only my wife. She’s like “people are going to want to kill you!”
MJ: People need to learn to laugh at themselves.
AD: My daughter loves “Huey P.” “Crabs” is second.
MJ: I’ll tell you what is strange about living in the Bywater: usually on Saturday afternoons I’ll sit on the stoop, drinking a beer and reading the paper. And they have these bike tours that go by and I’m like “Am I part of the show?” [Laughs]
AH: The answer’s yes!
LT: I don’t have anything against K-Doe; I don’t have anything against Quintron. It’s people that every time they were within six feet of K-Doe: “I was hanging out with Ernie the other day..” [Laughs]
MJ: But I did get to perform with Ernie K-Doe with Egg Yolk Jubilee… There was one night, some dude walked in with a tank-top or wife-beater shirt and Antoinette came up and told me to stop the song. And Ernie K-Doe came back after 5 minutes and said: “This ain’t no honky tonk. This ain’t no juke joint. This ain’t no saloon. This is Ernie K-Doe’s Mother-in-Law Lounge. And when you come here you got to dress appropriately. Now where were we? Back to the bridge, three… four…” And miraculously, we were right at the exact spot that we stopped… I kind of brag that I got Ernie K-Doe cred! [Laughs] Well, I played with him at least a dozen times!
And I think taking the occasional shot at icons keeps everything fresh.
LT: I wish we could become icons; someone could take a shot at us!
AD: Not literally!
What do you think about that Huey P. Long bridge expansion? Do you feel like future generations are going to miss out on one of the most thrilling automobile experiences?
LT: I love it; it’s like a roller-coaster ride to me. I pass up semi’s. You just gotta concentrate.
Norco Lapalco’s CD release will be at the Banks Street Bar on Saturday, May 5th with Sexdog. They’ll also be performing at Cafe Prytania on June 9th with Dummy Dumpster. For more information, check out norcolapalco.com
