A Modest Proposal Let’s face it: Miami sucks unless you’re gay, rich, or homeless (oh, I guess that last one would suck too). But upon digging a little deeper, I found Miami does have a few gems besides Rick Ross and Daddy Yankee. Namely, Baby Calendar: an anti-youth militia group who fart on babies on the 7th of every month. But even more fascinating, is that they also play music. And, it’s good. They’ve recently recorded a propaganda album expressing the viewpoints and intentions, so I decided to sit down and talk to Jackie Biver of Baby Calendar from across the state using email over the course of a week. Here we go! Baby Calendar? What the fuck’s that all about? It's a killer wrestling move. How long has BC been kickin’ out the jams? We started letting in stray jams almost 2 years ago, but we started kickin' them out when it was clear they had overstayed their welcome... they were just lounging around on the couch all day, eating all our food, it was kicking time! Your latest album is titled Gingerbread Dog (just thought you should know). And while we're on the subject, what does Gingerbread Dog mean to you? (Note: You can either comment on the name, the album itself, or both. Go nuts.) We have these friends (amazing, right?) in a band called Fake Problems and they're from Naples. Well, we often tour and party with these fellows. On one such occasion, we were playing with Casey's (guitar) little dog. Now I don't remember this dog's real name, but it had something to do with Ginger, and it was just the cutest damn thing you've ever seen, this dog. We named it Gingerbread Dog cuz it just looked like a little cookie, it was so sweet. Well an entire night of ridiculousness was loosely based around naming the dog Gingerbread Dog, including a short segment captured on film that's locked in our vaults for possible future use, and when it came time to name the album, it just felt right. So many of the songs are influenced by everything we've been through in the past years and adventures we've had with our friends, it was only fitting that it be named after a supreme friend adventure. And while were still on the subject, on the album cover, there is a little critter riding in a hot air balloon. Is that a Gingerbread Dog? Cuz it looks like an owl. HAHA! That's a big "LOL" buddy, a big 10-4. No, it's definitely supposed to be a dog, but if an owl's what you see, then an owl it shall be. For anyone not familiar, tell us what the local music/art scene is like in Miami (in your perspective of course). It's pretty diverse, it seems like everyone who lives in Miami is an artist or musician of some kind and many people are involved in several projects involving either or both art and music. Recently some friends of ours started an event called Artmob where there are art displays, interactive performances, bands, djs, and electronic music playing. It's a really neat concept and they're just getting it off the ground. There's a ritzy art scene on South Beach, there's avant-garde modern art, there's the Design District where there are tons of clubs and galleries popping up, and there are old fashioned punks doing house shows. We've made a lot of friends here and will always love our home of Miami, but we do plan on moving around to try out other cities and see how it goes. This next question has virtually no relevance: kP recently went to see Spank Rock (in Miami) at a place called The District, which is this swanky restaurant by day and a venue at night (its in the middle of the Design District on 40th). Ever played there? We've been there several times, never played there... The District is actually located in the area I was just talking about, the Design District, and its part of the whole hipster-dancy-drinky-party scene. We have friends who frequent the district but it's just too crowded and alcoholy for us. Not to say it's not a fun place, because it is, but I don't think our music fits in to that sort of atmosphere for one thing, and for another, like I said, we mostly aren’t' the going out dancing and drinking type of folks. You guys have a block party, the Athens Pop Fest, and the Happy Little Fun Tour coming up. Why don’t you tell us about all those things, and then tell us about any future tour plans. And when are you coming to Orlando? Oooh ok, this is the fun part! We're playing this free block party all down Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach. They do stuff like this about once a year or so on this specific street. It's this street lined with venues, clubs, pubs, restaurants, pizza places and cool stores. Anyway, they've been around for 19 years and they are celebrating with this big old party. There are going to bands playing in the street and inside venues on the street. We play inside pretty much the coolest venue on the street, Respectable Street, around 9:00pm. Then there's Popfest... Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. So every year in Athens, GA, they have 2 big events that people come from all over the country (and even outside the country) to attend. There's Athfest, which is a selection of Athens most awesome bands, and then there's the Athens Popfest, a truly amazing weeklong event with music every afternoon and evening by some of the awesomest pop bands around! This year we've got some pretty amazing headliners. We're talking Deerhoof, The Mountain Goats, Apples in Stereo, We Vs. The Shark, Megaband, Col. Knowledge & The Lickety Splits just to name a few. There are so many good bands playing, I can't name them all. The schedule and lineup is online here. Everyone should really do themselves (or is it themself?) a favor and find out about POPFEST! After Popfest, we're doing a week long tour with a label mate who's coming all the way from the UK to play Popfest, his name is Keith John Adams and he's pretty much a badass. There are lots of tour plans in the works as usual and we'll be back in Orlando pretty darn soon. One of our favorite places to play in Orlando, even though it's small and not a typical venue (or maybe it's precisely because it IS small and not a typical venue), is Austin’s Coffee and Film. I'm sure we'll be back there soon. I’m thinking of investing in stocks and I wanted some advice from you dudes. Should I invest in McDonalds or Burger King? Burger King offers veggie burgers, but I read that Subway actually has the most restaurants out of all of those fast food places. Speaking of meat, who makes the best hamburgers, in your opinions? Tom loves hamburgers from Applebees, but loves homemade burgers best. I don't eat burgers, and Arik will eat anything that's free... unless he's a vegetarian that week (Tee-hee! don't be mad Arik!). Ever met anyone famous while playing Rock ‘N’ Roll? Depends on your version of famous, but probably the most well known rock-n-rollers that we've met are Braid, Mates of State, and Rainer Maria. What are Super Mario’s favorite type of pants? Overalls duh! (Denim denim denim) How long have you dudes (and dudette) been swappin’ spit with Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records? Gingerbread Dog is our first HHBTM release and it came out in May, but we had been doing talking and planning for the release for months and months beforehand. Thankfully, Mike has never tried to spit on or anywhere near us. He's a pretty polite guy that way. Even though they’re a label and you’re a band, do you ever get jealous that they have a better name than you? (Note: I do think you guys have a really cool name though.) Even though they do have the raddest name in town, it's so long that it gets tedious to write over and over, so it gets shortened to HHBTM, which is still cool. So yea, pretty much yes. When I met you all, you were super nice. Is that just because you knew how cool I was, that you sensed I would someday write about you in such a intensely circulated publication such as this, or because you’re just nice people? Nope, it's the first one. I had been to Miami once before I saw Spank Rock and the town totally sucked, but you guys totally don’t suck. It’s more like the opposite of suck, but not blow, something good. How do you explain that? (Note: Try to include the word hotdog in your answer.) First of all, thank you for the kind words! There are actually some really, really good bands in Miami, but they tend to either leave or dissipate before enough people find out about them. For example, we have some friends who have recently moved to New York, Seattle, and several other rockin' cities, and we'll probably be packin’ our bags pretty soon too. It is hard to be a touring band and live in Miami, it takes 10 hours just to get out of Florida from way down here. I dunno. Miami doesn't totally suck, it just sucks a little. There is a lot of beauty and awesomeness here too, and a surprisingly humongo number of extremely talented musicians and artists! They just aren't out there promoting themselves and playing other cities, they only stick around and play local shows to their friends. We're not bashing that, because we've done that plenty and that's an awesome way to do things. But unless you have some rich benefactor supporting you and paying your rent, we all need to eventually find some way to make a living. If you can make a living doing something you love and be in control of you own career, I think that's a very respectable thing. That's what we're trying to do. How’s the album been selling? It's only been out for about 2 months and it's been doing really well - cranking them out like hotcakes. We have a lot of big boxes to go through still soooo if anyone reading this happens to want to purchase one, they could peruse our website and find out how to do that... then the next time someone asks this question, we can say, OMG AMAZINGLY, all these people from Orlando bought some and told all their friends! Do you think it would sell better if it were called Titties & Ribs? Only if our band named was Booties & Chicken Wings. What’s one word you would like this interview to end with? Skibbledeebee. interview by Matt Harrison MORE INFO: Baby Calendar's Myspace, Official Website