Reviews
“explosive rock” -Hard Club News, Winter 1999
“the future of metal” -DJ Bret, KXLU-FM 88.9, Los Angeles
“inappropriate for a university setting” -Suzanne Frentz, Associate Dean, College of Fine Arts, LMU, Fall 1999
Press
“Three Pounds Brings Home the Bakon
LMU’s answer to heavy metal debuts on Regent’s Terrace”
Los Angeles Loyolan
March 10, 1999
By Paula Haifley and Sara Messmer
Asst. A&E Editors
LMU harbors a renegade underground. Known as the band Three Pounds of Bakon, this threesome of red-meat loving, hard rocking music students operate under pseudonyms to protect their anonymity. Three Pounds of Bakon plans to shock and appall the LMU population when they play live on Regents Terrace tomorrow, Thursday, March 11 at convocation hour. Their set will also broadcast live on KXLU so they can spread their pro-meat message to the greater Los Angeles area. Bassist Spike Mintroses and guitarist Gino Chachinno took time from their busy meat-eating schedules to sit down for a brief interview; alas, drummer Arizona Icyhusk, the heir to a large sum of Toys ‘R’ Us money, could not join them.
When asked to reveal the band’s true identities, Mintroses scoffed. He professed that the three mild-mannered music majors who look exactly like the band members are not secret identities but completely separate people. “We all have evil twin cousins who tend to try to upstage us and replace us at various times.”
Loyolan: Where did Three Pounds of Bakon come from?
Mintroses: A long time ago, while we were living in South Dakota, I met [Gino] in detention in juvenile hall. I found out that we had a common past. We were both raised by wolves and fed blood sausage when we were little…
Chachinno: …and raw carcasses.
Mintroses: Road kill. There’s nothing like fresh possum. Basically, as a result, we got this idea to put this band together and really deal with our meat issues.
Bassist Spike Mintroses (left) and guitarist Gino Chachinno of Three Pounds of Bakon
rock the Chorus Club in Hollywood, CA.
Chachinno: It’s kind of a meat eating disorder . . . We look down our noses at vegetarians, and carry pick-axes with us frequently.
Mintroses: 3 Pounds of Bakon is’ not so much a band, and it’s not so much a concept, as it is a natural disaster. We’re really trying to propagate a message of…
Chachinno: …destruction.
Mintroses: We’re kind of a political band, honestly. We operate on a pro-cheeseburger, pro-Furby platform.
Chachinno: [Three Pounds of Bakon is] a way of life for us.
Mintroses: It’s hard to describe it. It’s something that should be left unsaid, left alone… It means so little to so few people.
Chachinno: Except for us.
Mintroses: It’s beyond existence. It’s really a way of life.
Loyolan: Your sound is pretty heavy and loud.
Mintroses: It’s pretty fattening. People’s cholesterol really goes up after they listen to us. We destroy a lot of home stereos that way. Speakers fizzle and self-destruct. The music of Three Pounds of Bakon is kind of like Julie Andrews, the Muppets…
Chachinno: Kenny Rodgers. Kenny Loggins. We’re also influenced by classical. A little bit of Bach and Mozart tends to meld into something like ‘Mach.’
Loyolan: Do you consider yourselves a metal band?
Mintroses: Mostly we’re just repulsive. Occasionally, we like to make some loud noises. Not to categorize ourselves, but we’re more hard rock. We’re trying to get away from that hard rock and heavy metal sound.
Loyolan: If you’re trying to get away from the hard rock sound, where do you want to go?
Mintroses: Nepal.
Chachinno: Portugal.
Mintroses: We really just want to get away from it all. The stuff that we’re writing is really heading towards a ‘muzak’ direction. Light instrumental fluff with a lot of children’s thematic material mixed in. It’s very family oriented.
Loyolan: A lot of your songs mention working for the man.
Mintroses: Who is this man? The man is that invisible guy that makes your McDonalds paycheck go from $140 to about $86.
Chachinno: He likes to eat a lot of meat whimsies If we can eat more meat than him, if we can take the meat away from him maybe he’ll dissipate.
Loyolan: Are you working on a record?
Mintroses: [Gino] is working on a record in his mind.
Chachinno: The concept of this record I have . . . well, the musical range isn’t going in the direction I’d like it to. I’d like it somehow to incorporate slabs of raw meat being beaten with metal poles or sticks. Somehow maybe mic that signal and run it through the amps. And I’d really like our sound to focus more on the slabs of meat. Well, I’m working out the technicalities in my head. I think that might be the next big thing. It could be bigger than the Beatles. It could be bigger than Jesus. I don’t know.
Mintroses: It could be bigger than Fatburger. But that’s a tall order.
Chachinno: That’s my concept of the album. An ensemble of slabs of meat being beaten with metal poles.Different sides of meat, different sizes, different textures, different animals.
Loyolan: With this movement towards meat music, do you consider yourselves an anti-p.c. band?
Mintroses: We’re not into controversy as much as just plain offending people.
Chachinno: We really don’t have a concept of being p.c. because we were raised by wolves. We only know meat, and beating the meat. That didn’t come out right.
Loyolan: Where do you see Three Pounds of Bakon heading in the future?
Mintroses: Three Pounds of Bakon has been and will always be, because it’s about love and friendship. Chachinno: It’s about always being on duty.
Mintroses: Actually it’s really about always being on duty. That’s the fundamental principle of 3 Pounds of Bakon. The hope is to…
Chachinno: always be on duty, and never be off duty.
Mintroses: Basically we just want to solve world hunger. That’s about it.
Chachinno: We just try to make a lot of noise and pollute the world with our filth.