WHEEL ME OUT - Running

The first time WMO heard Running’s eponymous LP, we leapt to our feet with joy that heavy psychedelic experimental noise was indeed alive and well and living in Chicago, and then sat back down again to marvel at the complex beauty of it all. We spoke with Running’s very polite Puerto Rican drummer Alejandro Morales Aponte about his adopted city’s DIY scene, the new wave of cassettes, and the lack of mystery behind the band’s name.

By Ananda Pellerin

How would you describe the sound of Running? It’s kind of noisy, high energy punk rock about intensity. Short economic songs for tough times.

Is your live sound similar to your recorded one? It’s a good representation because the noises on the record were captured all at the same time. When we got the recording we were pretty impressed that it sounded like it did when we would record our practices on an iPhone, but it was done in a studio. On stage we sound exactly like on the record, but like, fucked-up drunk or something.

Well you sound pretty fucked-up drunk on the record too. Thank you. I like the record a lot because you can play it at 45 but then if you’re in a stony, slow mood, you can play it on 33 and still rock.

Is this your first band? No I’d played in different bands before. What got me to get out and play music really is the band that I have with my girlfriend Nicole, an experimental duo called Piss Piss Piss Moan Moan Moan.

What’s the Chicago scene like? It’s pretty exciting. There’s all the punk rock bands that we play with and we all know each other, so whenever there’s a show it feels more like a party. And whenever we hear about some exciting band around town we try to get them to hang out with us and play shows. One of my favourite Chicago bands right now is The Loose Dudes, their sound makes you think of Black Flag and they put on a pretty hilarious show; interactive and confrontational sometimes. There’s another one called ONO from the 80s that have reformed, they used to open shows for the Birthday Party, Lydia Lunch, Naked Raygun. They’re local weirdos. Their first record was recorded by Al Jourgensen, before he did the Ministry stuff.

Which bands influence you the most? Pussy Galore. They were pretty awesome and I like all those offshoots too like Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Boss Hog, Royal Trux, but to me Pussy Galore, that’s what I’m obsessed with. They were so of the moment, pretty noisy, like skrunk scum rock. I also love The Cramps and The Fall. I don’t think it comes through in what I do musically, but in terms of attitude I really love Mark E Smith. He’s one of my favourite individuals.

As well as your LP, you’ve done cassette-only releases... Tape trading is really popular on the experimental noise scene so we released some crappy four track recordings we’d made. We put out a hundred of them and they went pretty quick at our shows. I myself don’t have a copy anymore.

What kind of response do you get outside of the US? I was pretty flattered to know that that guy Tom Ravenscroft played our record on the radio in the UK. When I saw the playlist I was very excited, then I found out he was the son of John Peel, who was such a strong Fall supporter and I was like, oh my god his son likes my music. I get giddy.

How did you get the name Running? You know I really can’t recall how that happened, I think that we were thinking about the big mind fuck it would be to Google a name like Running and then we started buying into the idea of having no web presence. I think it adds a little mystery but we can be found you know; if you can connect the dots. WMO