The Micronotz interview in Flipside-page 1

This interview was done by mail Nov /Dec. '85 after I had the pleasure of seeing the MICRONOTZ play live. only the third gig I got to see inside Leavenworth prison. The other two bands were Dream Syndicate and 3 O'clock, both back in '83 - and my impressions of those shows were printed in Flipside back then. It's pretty obvious that 3 O'Clock have lost a lot of their significance to the Flipside readership, and hopefully Dream Syndicate have regained some of theirs by getting Paul Cutler on guitar, though I can't judge since I haven't heard their new line ups.
What I'm getting at is that the Micronotz are the worthiest of all for inclusion in these pages even though they're not an L.A. band. They are the quintessential Flipside band. If you like Flipside, and who doesn't, you like your punk rock with flair, humor, dedication and equal amounts of intense noise and melody (or something like that). The 'Notz as they are affectionately known ripped!!! They were/are obviously a band on the ascendant, with songs off their new LP sounding even better than the ones I'd grown familiar with (and awaited anxiously) off their "The Beast that Devoured Itself".
When they swing through L.A. on their next tour don't miss 'em - and meanwhile write FRESH SOUNDS P.O. Box 36 Lawrence KS 66044 and pick up on their back catalogue of three earlier LP's (including "Beast") and a live e.p.
The Micronotz are Jay on guitar and vocals, John on guitar, David on bass, and Steve on drums. They are the best band to ever come out of Kansas. --Shane Williams

1) Here's one you guys get asked a lot I bet. Why did you drop the "Mortal" from your name? By the way, before you played Leavenworth, I heard these variations in jest...The Microdots and the Meganotz. Maybe the latter would have been a good change. What is/was the original origin?
David: We got the name from the little robot toys we used to have, based on the comic book "Micronauts". The mortal was added because that's what we are and the spelling was changed so we weren't ripping off the comic book people but we dropped the mortal

because the name was too long and everyone else was dropping it too. There's all sorts of variations we've run across, mainly touring new places.

2) When you sing "Proud to be a Farmer", it's easy to think you're being entirely facetious--but the chorus "You don't know nothing so don't put me down" belies that. Do any of you come from farm families and what do you think of the farmers' plight at present?
STEVE: The song is serious and isn't supposed to be a putdown on farmers. Actually Jay had a shirt that says that and he was wearing it when we were working on the song so that's what it was called, and then he wrote the words. Being from Kansas there are lots of farmers around, but we're not farmers. John's parents have a farm and we've all been on farms, for sure we hope the farmers situation improves.

3) Knowing that you've been playing since your high school days and that you had to wait until you all were 18 to play Leavenworth,I'd imagine you're all 18 or 19 now, what are your ages? From what I understand, you guys are going to be a touring band always on the move. Do you think that you miss out on anything being on the road? What do your folks and/or girlfriends think of your dedication?
STEVE: There's no teenager left in the band. (John just turned 20. Steve is 20. David is 21, Jay is 24). When Bill first tried to get us to play the prison, it was a couple years ago and we weren't old enough. There was a story last week in the Wichita paper that said we were all teenagers who had been touring 7 years, so there's always wrong things being passed as fact.
JOHN: If we're going to miss out on anything by being a touring band, it's going to be a bunch of bullshit.

Commitments I personally don't want.
DAVID: Of course we'll miss out a lot. But we'll gain more by being on the road. The problems are more involved. You can't be on the road all the time, you have to have some other type of life or you'll go crazy. The hard part is keeping it all together financially and mentally. I think everybody is pretty much all for it. Everybody knows how long we've been doing this and that we'll be doing it until we can't take it anymore.
STEVE: Off and on it's a real problem with girlfriends and parents who don't always understand the devotion, but they're gonna get on your case no matter what you do.
4) You toured this summer in support of "BEAST" and are planning to go out in early 86 to support the new album, right? What were some of the high and low points of the summer?
Jay: I like the road. I like to drive all night, usually leaving one gnarly inner-city to wake up in the next one. It's fun.
David: I think the highlights are usually leaving and getting back, everything in between is usually up and down. Every show has its highs and lows for different reasons. Sometimes the crowds are great....
Jay: Like last night, opening up for the Circle Jerks.
David: And other times when there wouldn't be anyone there to see it.
Steve: We did have a lot of variety this summer as far as the shows went. Sometimes for a skinhead thrash crowd, sometimes in gay discos, and sometimes in working-class bars, so we had to adjust our set list a little. Sometimes we get paid very little opening for bands making quite a lot. As far as differences, some cities feel good or bad soon as you hit city limits, though any city might be good for one trip and not so good of a scene the next time.
5) Is it true that the next album