In advance of their show at Cobra Lounge on Sunday, 2/21, I’m joined by members of the Effigies and the Evictions at Cobra! Paul, Steve, and Andy from the Effigies and Johnny from the Evictions jumped in the car to preview the show and talk about the long history of Chicago music and punk.

We also were treated to new items from Cobra’s pizza menu, thanks to Chef Jason:

Dragged Through the Garden – poppy seed crust, sliced hot dogs, onion, sport peppers, dill pickles, green relish, mustard and celery salt

Louie’s Pizza – Pepperoni, giardiniera, and calabrian chili oil

Both pizzas were spectacular, but I think the hot dog pizza was really something extra special.

See you at Cobra on Saturday! Apologies for not also having the Bollweevils on this episode – looks like I’ll have to have Daryl on again soon.

Cobra Lounge (235 N. Ashland) – Saturday 2/21 – Effigies, Bollweevils, Evictions

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Full transcript (Note: AI-generated; may contain spelling and syntax errors)

James VanOsdol: This right here is Car Con Carne. Car Con Carne is a Q101 podcast. I’m James VanOsdol, and Car Con Carne is sponsored by Exploding House Printing. Exploding House Printing is here for all of your screen printing, embroidery, and other merch needs. They are local, they’re over in Hermosa, and they handle things like t-shirts, merch, whatever you need if you’re a small business or brand. Get the hookup; call Jonathan at Exploding House. He’s been doing this for decades and he knows what he’s doing. Besides technical expertise, he delivers production efficiency and cost awareness to offer boutique print shop quality at much lower large print shop prices. They’re on Instagram @explodinghouse or you can check them out at explodinghouseprinting.com. Get a quote, see their list of clients, they are amazing. Thank you to Exploding House for sponsoring this podcast.

(Intro Music: “Car Con Carne” theme)

James VanOsdol: We are outside Cobra Lounge on a night off. I’m joined by members of both the Effigies and the Evictions. Saturday, 21st of February, it is the Effigies, the Bollweevils, and the Evictions on stage. That show is almost too big for one stage. Cobra Lounge, 235 North Ashland. I have in the car with me—if you’re listening you can’t see them all, let me tell you—I’ve got Paul and Steve and Andy from the Effigies. I’ve got Johnny from the Evictions. We are all coming together to talk about this show, also to eat Cobra Lounge pizza.

Johnny: Yes.

James VanOsdol: I’m not sure what the priority is yet; we’ll find out. But Cobra Lounge just released a new pizza menu, which looks amazing. Chef Jason came here on his night off. Like, this place is closed.

Johnny: It’s awesome.

James VanOsdol: He’s right here.

Johnny: What? Oh my god, he’s here!

James VanOsdol: That was like a Candyman thing. I just said Chef Jason’s name and he just showed up at the window. Holy crap. How’s that for service? Hi, Chef Jason.

Chef Jason: Hey, how’s it going? I brought some pizzas for you guys.

James VanOsdol: Nice!

Chef Jason: Hang on, on the back window. There you go.

James VanOsdol: Yeah! What’s back here? It looks like there might be a little bit more.

Chef Jason: Yeah, there’s more room back here. Awesome, thanks. So I got a “Drag Through the Garden” and I got a “Louie.” So the “Drag Through the Garden” is a Chicago-style hot dog pizza and the “Louie” is hot giardiniera, Calabrian chili oil, and pepperoni.

James VanOsdol: So with the “Drag Through the Garden” pizza, which is a hot dog pizza—poppy seed?

Chef Jason: Poppy seed crust. And then it’s cooked with sport peppers, hot dogs, dill pickles on it, and onions. And then it’s topped with tomatoes when it comes out—tomatoes, neon green relish and mustard and celery salt.

James VanOsdol: I’ve got to think this is probably an early favorite on the menu just because it’s so bonkers.

Chef Jason: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, yeah. Everyone’s trying it so far.

James VanOsdol: All right, we’re going to eat your food, Chef Jason. We’ll give you the report when we’re done.

Chef Jason: Cool. Thank you.

James VanOsdol: Thank you! Chef Jason from Cobra Lounge, here on his night off. So that’s very nice. How many of those are there?

Johnny: We got plenty of those. Oh, he’s got the—pass another one back. Yep. One, two, three. James, here you go.

James VanOsdol: Oh, he brought plates! Are we rolling here, is that—

Andy: Oh, we never stop.

James VanOsdol: Okay, great. All right. I need to see—I need some camera on the pizzas here. Yeah. Can you spin that around? I think I just spilled some on myself. This is a “Louie.” Okay. A few logistical challenges in the back seat of the Subaru Crosstrek, but there we go. Got a little shot there.

Johnny: Oh that looks great, I got it.

James VanOsdol: It looks—it looks amazing. Everything smells good. Jason doesn’t play around. Jason does NOT play around. And again, just the kindness of coming in for you guys on the night off. Actually, Cobra can’t be open the week that you guys are playing there. I mean, there’s so much they need to reinforce—the walls, the floors. They just need to make sure the place is ready. They’re training the staff, that’s what’s happening all week. It’s like, you know, Super Bowl prep. James, why don’t you give me your plate?

James VanOsdol: Okay, okay. Thank you.

Andy: JVO, you need a slice of the—this is the “Louie,” which I don’t even remember what he said, but—

James VanOsdol: I can tell you what he said. The Louie’s pizza is pepperoni, giardiniera, and Calabrian chili oil. I can hold one of these.

Andy: Okay. There’s another one for him. Whatever you got. All right, there’s the other one. You got it? So this is the “Louie.”

Johnny: I’m here to tell you, it’s mighty fine.

James VanOsdol: Is it? Reviews are coming in.

Johnny: Oh hell yeah.

James VanOsdol: The timing is great; we get to eat them and talk. Oh hell yeah. Good job. It’s quiet, it must be good.

Johnny: Yep.

Andy: It’s good, and the heat is not oppressive. Like, you see the giardiniera on the ingredient list and the Calabrian oil, you’re like, “Okay, is this going to blow my face off?” Right. The heat is like a very manageable, delicious—

Johnny: It’s not that hot, really. It went with the mild.

Andy: The flavor is nice.

Johnny: There’s definitely heat there. A little bit. But it’s not prohibitive. I was worried that we’re all going to be craving beer in the car after eating this. Well, we are. We are. Yeah, that had nothing to do with the pizza.

James VanOsdol: So the show is happening, I want to get into that. I want to talk Effigies stuff. I do know Johnny, the Evictions, we have you on borrowed time because you’re doing a gig tonight as we’re recording this. Evictions have been busy; you’ve got new songs.

Johnny: Yeah, we recorded an album a while back and finally getting to finish mixes, so we’re releasing a couple of those out leading up to this show. So those will be live on all the streaming servers, what have you, by the time the show goes off on Saturday. Just a couple of them and then the rest of the album will be out full length, probably this fall.

James VanOsdol: And this is all—these songs are what I like about Evictions. Easy on the outside is like straight-up power pop.

Johnny: Yeah, I mean, it’s not hard to kind of pick out our influences, you know? But we do kind of dip our toe into, you know, a lot of bands that we like and are inspired by. To kind of stay in one lane. So… and the cool thing that we did with this record—usually we go in and we’ll just knock out basically live in like two days in a studio and just kind of punk rock approach. This one, we sort of did the same thing but then we’re finishing it in Chicago. We went and recorded at the Ashton House in Ann Arbor… Oh wow. Yeah, where the—it’s literally the house where the Stooges started the band.

Effigies member: Oh, wow. Ashton House.

Johnny: So I’ve been friends with Kathy Ashton for years, and she finally turned the basement where they had their first jams with Iggy and all that stuff—she turned that into a studio. And so we went up there and spent a day and tracked all of our songs and hung out. And then we’re finishing vocals and guitar dubs in Chicago. So… completely mind-blowing thing to try and focus on what you’re doing standing in that place, and just the weight of the moment was incredible. Hopefully some of that kind of mojo rubbed off, but it was, you know, wanted to do something different and that definitely was different for what we’re used to as a band. So…

James VanOsdol: For the Effigies in the car—I know that Stooges and Iggy were a generation before you, but I’ve got to think in the ’80s there was some overlap and you met them or did something with them at some point?

Effigies member: Well, we—I mean, we were fans of the Stooges, we were fans of the Dolls, we were fans of—like the Dead Boys and some of the, you know, the early punk bands. We never—I actually met—we played with Lords of the New Church in Arizona.

James VanOsdol: Cool.

Effigies member: So we hung out and talked with Stiv Bators, but as far as the Stooges, we never, you know, met them or did anything, but we loved them. We loved their music. For sure. And we had their—we had the bootleg and all that. So, I mean, we, you know, when we practiced, we played some of their songs too, when we first got together. We jammed some of their tunes.

James VanOsdol: It’s never too late, though. They’re still around.

Effigies member: They’re still playing!

James VanOsdol: Back to the Evictions, these songs that you recorded at that iconic location. “Spotlights,” that’s four on the floor from the jump, like right out of the gate. And I feel like you pushed your voice to the limit on that one too.

Johnny: Um, I—that’s probably the thing that I worked the hardest on with this, just for me not being, you know, I’m definitely in a—I would say low-level punk rock capabilities of vocals. But there’s a certain awesomeness in having the time to really work on it without just being like, “Okay, we got two hours to do vocals, go,” and then you’re done. So I actually got to spend some time and we tried to make kind of a bigger record, and there’s a lot more guitar tracks on there and stuff like that.

James VanOsdol: On that note, “We Will” is one of those guitar tracks.

Johnny: It is. Yeah. But you know, you can hear like there’s Cheap Trick in there, there’s old garage rock stuff like the Sonics or the Cynics, things like that, you know? There’s stuff that’s more—you know, we’re fans of the Bronx, we’re fans of metal, all that. But I really wanted to just have good hooks and catchy stuff but still be abrasive and high energy and all the things we like about being a three-piece and kind of letting the rhythm section go off. And, you know, Chris—I mean, you can’t really put that guy in a box. You got to just kind of turn him loose. And that’s, you know, the more that we could get all that to come through on the record was—that was kind of the goal.

James VanOsdol: You guys keep getting better and better. And you describe yourself as a low-level punk, which I don’t buy, but if that were true, you are sitting in the car with high-level punks in the form of the Effigies. What was your awareness level of the Effigies coming up?

Johnny: Um, one of those things that’s like the Chicago staple—like there’s a handful of bands that you just are like, these are the Chicago bands that have been here. And you kind of need—you know, it’s like Reagan and even when we first moved up here and started playing in bands, it was like, oh yeah, there’s these, you know, this handful of bands. Like Lucas was one of those guys and Effigies was there, and all the people that, you know, we’re still friends with now, like, you know, Herb and people that are just like a generation ahead of us that came up seeing all these shows. Yeah, it’s like, that’s just kind of ingrained into Chicago punk rock and all of that. So… it’s one of those like, respect your elders and take note kind of thing. Not saying you guys are old, but, you know.

Effigies member: Oh yeah. It’s awesome that that this kind of continued rock of Chicago, you know, keeps going. And we love playing with all, you know, all bands. We love meeting the new groups and stuff like that, you know? So I mean, we’re having a good time with it and a lot of the bands we’re playing with on the road and we were watching these guys on the video last—the other night—and they’re amazing. They’re an amazing band and it’s going to be a kick-ass show.

Johnny: It is going to be a great show.

Effigies member: We’re really excited for this show coming up.

James VanOsdol: Let’s not forget the Bollweevils.

Effigies member: Let’s not forget the Bollweevils. Yeah, we’re nervous about doing our thing before both of those bands.

James VanOsdol: Just have fun. Just have fun. It’s going to be a blast for everybody. Right. Got to bring it. Daryl from the Bollweevils—not a short man. I do worry about him on this stage.

Effigies member: Yeah, it’s a weird stage too. There’s some metal involved, there’s lots of brick. Exactly. I don’t want him dinging a forehead. It’s a weird shape, you know? There’s like—yeah, weird angles involved. Um, yeah, it’s going to be fun.

James VanOsdol: “Pioneers” is a weird word to use, Effigies, but you kind of were. I mean, you were kind of carving out this scene.

Effigies member: Well, here’s the—the weird thing about I think Chicago as kind of a music town. When the punk thing was happening like in LA and in England, LA, and in New York, Chicago was still kind of mired in blues and like, you know, Midwestern rock kind of thing, kind of sound. And people were still listening, you know, to like Led Zeppelin and all that on the radio, which was fine, you know? But they never really adopted the punk thing. So we—we came kind of five years after those bands were established. So it’s kind of like—I don’t know, I—I’d say that Chicago was a very conservative town then. Not—it’s very progressive now, but then it was extremely conservative and I think people kind of viewed it as flyover country when the bands came through. Some of the bigger punk bands did come through—the Ramones, we saw the Clash, you know, the Pistols tried playing. A lot of people thought punk rock was a novelty that wasn’t going to last. That’s right. You know. So a lot of clubs didn’t give us the respect we get today. Well, a lot of the—the clubs in the city weren’t many. All the suburban rock clubs back then had like tribute bands or cover bands. You couldn’t really play original music. So it was late to coming to Chicago. But when it hit Chicago, I think the Chicago punk sound or the bands that come out of here—it’s a very guitar-oriented, very heavy, really kind of masculine, heavy sound to it, you know? So I just—that’s we definitely have our own sound, you know? LA has got—California’s got its sound, New York has its sound, Chicago has its sound, which is—which is great. I mean, Detroit has its sound. Detroit’s a great music town too, and, you know, that wasn’t really looked at as a music town for a long time. But Minneapolis actually was the best punk scene, I thought. Oh, Minneapolis had a great scene. You know, it was—the crowds were really fun in Minneapolis and the clubs—well, we played with Husker Du and hung out and stayed at their place when we went up there. So I mean, that crowds at the shows were, you know, pretty intense there too.

James VanOsdol: Since you were kind of in this Wild West carving out a scene in the ’80s, was it congenial with bands? Like, were you in lockstep with Reagan, Strike Under, etc., or was there healthy competition?

Effigies member: No, everybody was—there was a lot of camaraderie in the US bands. The English bands, on the other hand, were not. They treated everybody like shit. Yeah, yeah, that was—I mean, we—I mean, there was rivalry in the sense that everyone wanted to blow each other off the stage. Right. That’s healthy, though. Exactly. But I mean, and there’s some, you know, there’s some controversy at some point, you know, between certain members of our band and another band in this town, and I think that was more kind of a political thing between both of those guys. But, you know, we always got along with each other, but we always wanted to, you know, kind of one-up each other too. That was kind of the thing. But I think that’s in any scene. But you’d come to towns and there’d always be one band in that town that was going to help you out in that town, put you up, make sure, you know, set up the gig. Also, I see old flyers for you guys and it’s like, Naked Reagan, Effigies, and Strike Under all three supporting like Black Flag or whoever was coming through town, you know? So it seems like, you know, they—those were kind of the core bands, I think, right? Those were the—it was Wax Trax put out the Strike Under record. That was kind of the first. Strike Under really was the first. They came out right like a week apart, but they could have—they could have gone a lot farther than they did. It’s a shame. There were bands before us that were part of what I’d call the La Mere Viper club scene. And that was, you know, Skafish and a couple other bands that played before, you know, before us. But they were kind of more wasn’t really kind of a hard rock kind of a punk hard punk kind of sound. It was more new-wavey or whatever. Like B-52s. Yeah. Right. The Suburban Facs, Silver Jargon. Right. So there’s like—I would classify them as new wave bands more than say punk bands. Skafish had a look. Yeah, he did. And then he had a great backup band too. One of my favorite shows is when we played with Skafish out in middle of nowhere, south—the Southeast side. But he was great; he would antagonize the crowd. I mean, people didn’t know—didn’t understand him or—he told us that in England, people thought it was “scoff-ish” and a bunch of skinheads showed up. Oh, I could see that. Totally. And they were a little disappointed. Yeah. But the—you know, I mean, the Chicago scene, it was pretty, I think, kind of a collective effort in that—because there’s really only a couple places to play. There’s like, you know, Oz and O’Banion’s, and then Exit opened up after that. So it was like we helped each other. One we’d do t-shirts, we one guy put on—Jeff from Naked Reagan would put on the, you know, the PA and then it was kind of a collective effort, you know? The famous Jeff Pezzati PA, which he did sound for our first gig ever was his PA. That’s amazing. Yeah. Jeff Pezzati of Naked Reagan.

James VanOsdol: Johnny, fast-forwarding to later generations, what’s your sense of camaraderie, competition? Has that stayed true in Chicago?

Johnny: Um, yeah, absolutely. And when, you know, when I joined the Vegas and we started touring and all that, you know, this was 2001 and there was a heavy network of heavy touring bands and you relied upon, like you said, in every town there was a band that you were cool with and that’s what got you around the country. And I mean, we did over a hundred shows a year for almost a decade in the Vegas, and it was, you know, no cell phones, no GPS, it was just, “Okay, I’m going to call so-and-so in this town and he’s going to put a show together,” and you show up and hopefully it works and then you go to the next town. And I mean, we’d go out for anywhere from two to four weeks multiple times a year, and it was all those are our friends and I’m still friends with those guys in a lot of these towns and that was just, you know, you learned that you have to be cool with the other bands, otherwise you don’t get to go back to that town and do what you want to do. And everybody got it. And so it wasn’t even just a Chicago understanding, which obviously that existed because those bands took us in when we were a young band, but you learn that that’s just kind of how all this survives in a, you know, kind of a living organism of rock and roll touring networking, putting out split singles, you know, whatever it was. You know, you relied on each other. And that’s the only way that you could have decent shows on tour. You needed those cool local bands who were like, “Hey, these guys are great, they’re playing here with us, you should come see them,” you know? And I don’t know how much that mentality still exists with younger bands because it’s a lot easier to just be social-apping people or whatever. Um, but hopefully—these kids in their cell phones. Yeah, well, I mean, if things went south, you know, you could be in a town halfway across country and have nowhere to stay, no money, no gas, no—no where to go, no food. So that was like, sit back and take notice from bands in Chicago that had already been doing this and kind of learn the ropes, you know? And we came up knowing that like Chicago kind of post-punk punk scene was like kind of the backbone of the music scene of, you know, things like you kind of a unique thing in Chicago that like he said, everybody kind of had their own flavor, but if you went to Minneapolis it was a little different, if you went to LA it was very different, you know? Chicago had this like blue-collar punk rock thing where these guys are in a band but also they would definitely kick your ass and they probably have some, you know, some labor skills and, you know, these are not—these are union guys on stage. Come on! Like, this is—this is hard work and blue-collar punk rock. And first when we started out, the—the guys from the Loop, all the—all the Loop t-shirts, they hated the punk rock. Hmm. Hmm-hmm. And we used to have a lot of problems with, you know, the Van Halen crowd and then eventually it all mixed in together. Right, right. Yeah, when they realized punk rock DOES rock. Well, they—but they realized—I mean, I think that’s the cool thing about now, anyway, is that back then it was very like you—you stayed within your tribe. That was it, you know? You were either a punk or a metalhead or a punk or a rocker or whatever. And now, I mean, peo—people have crossed over and they like all kinds of music, so you get all kinds of people. When—when rap was so smart to cross over and bring that audience. But that’s the way it should be. I mean, it’s either you like good music, you know, you like good music no matter what the music is, you know? So… I don’t know anyone, and certainly myself included, that listens to one type of music only. Right, right. If you were to look at a playlist on my phone right now, it would be the most harrowing schizophrenic journey you’ve ever taken. Sure. Miles Davis said there’s two kinds of music: good and bad. Exactly. Right. Exactly. Even if it’s not my favorite thing, if they bring it live, I’ll sit and appreciate a show. Hell yeah! Absolutely!

James VanOsdol: And now that we’re talking about this, you guys did tour with the Black Crowes.

Effigies member: Yes. And as it’s funny you bring that up, I was going to—I was thinking that because we were so nervous about opening up for them. I was going to say, it seems like there’s a little risk factor, maybe they’re too high to turn on you? No, they—they were 7 o’clock cold, man, at hard rock. Um, but they—they loved us. Their crowds loved us. They were so encouraging for us because it was our first shows with Jeff. And they were very gracious group of guys. Chris was really cool; he was really—he made us feel welcome as soon as we got there. He like came into the dressing room, he was talking with us about music. And we were talking all night with him about music and different things, you know? So I mean, it—he was into it. I think—I think he’s the captain of that—obviously of that ship, so he said, “Okay, I think on his different tours he—he tries to expose his crowd to different genres of music.” I love that. He’s very open about that. So and he was—those guys were great. That was—it was one of the best experiences I’ve had. They were really—really cool, really nice people. I mean, just kind of an incredible band, like the playing was—Oh yeah, they’re amazing. You know, everybody from the, you know, the stage techs to the—the wardrobe lady were so nice to us and, like, you know. Yeah, I saw them a couple times in the past few years, I thought they were great. Right, right. And the catering! We got to eat, the food was good. I was at Estelles one night at like 3 in the morning, and he was—I turned around, he was standing next to me having a beer and he said, “Hey,” I was like, “Okay, hi, hey! Great!” And he was just regular dude having a beer closing out Estelles, you know? Only in Chicago. I think he—he made me so happy that we were—we were like fresh meat, so Chris could—could tell all his stories for the first time. Right, right. He had a new audience.

James VanOsdol: I think we need to look at the pizza before we continue talking. Okay, so we got the “Drag Through the Garden” pizza. We’re ready to dive into the other one, but maybe we can get rid of one of these boxes out the window or something. Give me that. Out the window? There he’s got it. Just gotta—make the—make the rats happy. There you go, Cobra rats. Okay. He doesn’t mean there ARE rats by Cobra Lounge. The hot dog pizza, this is a first. I’m like— “Drag Through the Garden,” this is legit, this is on a poppy seed crust. It’s a poppy seed crust? Yeah, it is exactly what you think it is. It is literally a hot dog pizza. Okay, here we go. Wow, holy smokes, dude! I see the relish, the nuclear relish. Wow, oh you gotta have the neon relish if you’re going to do this. Now Jason famously or infamously created a hot dog soup here at Cobra Lounge. A hot dog soup? Oh, yeah. So this just feels like a natural evolution. We got—all right, we got everything on here. We got sport peppers, sliced pickles, tomato. Is there celery salt on there? I’m assuming this is hot dog. Yes. Oh yeah, there’s sliced hot dogs. There’s no ketchup. No, naturally they object. No ketchup, topped with the mustard. Yeah, it’s all on here. I don’t see onions, but I would assume they’d be there. Oh yeah, I think they’re there. They’re—they’re in here somewhere. I’ve been looking forward to this pizza—I’ve been looking forward to seeing you guys, but I’ve been looking forward to this pizza too. You guys you got a plate up there? Thank you so much. Yeah, I got—all right, here’s a couple of those. There you go. Oh my gosh! I know, I’m like, I’m behind here. It smells like a hot dog! Just a small one, please. Yeah, yeah. Okay, you got it. That is delightful. A little change of pace. Oh, there is mustard on here. Thank you. A splash of mustard. This is delightful. It tastes just like a hot dog with everything. Yeah. I’ve had Italian beef pizza with giardiniera on it, and that’s pretty good. That kind of falls under the umbrella of Italian pizza, but this… sport peppers, mustard… this should become a thing. Is this like his first—first launch of this pizza? I don’t know, but like I said, he did the hot dog soup, so this just feels like… that definitely works. This is delicious. It tastes like a hot dog with everything. Yeah. This is literally delicious. I’m sorry, I’m stunned into silence here. Yeah.

James VanOsdol: So tour with the Crowes aside, how’s it felt over the past year plus being back?

Effigies member: It’s been a great year. Been a great year, and mostly because of Jeff Sabin, our singer, who’s filling some big shoes, but Jeff just brings so much energy and enthusiasm that, you know, it’s like being—it’s like starting all over again. That first feeling we had when we started. We got to play England finally! Awesome. We’re having the time of my life now, really, with this. I mean, we’re writing new music right now. Excellent. I mean, we just had the “Fly on the Wire” re-release. We had it remastered, so it sounds like it should. Andy did some work on that too. And we’re in the studio now writing a new album, so we’re, you know, we’ve got five—five songs down and we’re building—we’ve got a full album’s worth of material, but we’re slowly recording it at this point.

James VanOsdol: I’d imagine that John comes up almost every day.

Effigies member: Yeah, I mean, he comes up in—I dream about the guy. I, you know, I do miss him dearly. And he’s still like that conscience in the, you know, telling you stuff in your head. You’d have to know him. But, you know, it’s been kind of rough, but we’re looking toward the future. And I think the best—the best thing in honoring, you know, his memory is to keep the band going and write new material and just, you know, show that it doesn’t matter what kind of obstacles you have in front of you, what kind of tragedies you have, you know, music is a cure for a lot of things. It’s a cure for mental health, it’s a cure for, you know, for—it gives you happiness and joy. I mean, it’s the greatest thing really, I think of all the arts; music is the highest form of that art.

James VanOsdol: That relationship that musicians have with the audience, like getting that close to the people who consume your art. I mean, I can’t imagine what that feels like to be able to do that and reconnect or make that connection again.

Effigies member: Yeah, it’s like a metaphysical thing, you can’t really explain it, but you know it when it’s clicking, when it happens, you know? It—you kind of—just in the realm of being, you know? We spent probably 95% of our career playing in small clubs, so we’re right there in—when we play these big shows like Riot Fest and Rebellion, I’m never as happy, you know? It’s—it’s great to be playing in front of these big crowds, but it’s not the same energy to me as being, you know, a hand’s length— Well, what I like about it is it’s the time where you know—everyone like time stands still for when you’re playing. With the crowd, what I’m watching a band that I love, or I’m playing, it’s time stands still. It’s like that—it’s like you’re in the realm of being, you know? It’s like a—you forget all the bullshit. That’s right. All the bullshit’s gone, you know? You’re just in that moment. And that, if we could—it’d be nice if we could learn to live our lives, you know, like that in other ways, you know? But music helps do that, and that’s why I think music is great. I mean, I love playing it.

James VanOsdol: You mentioned writing new songs. Do we hear new songs at Cobra Lounge or are those still—?

Effigies member: Yes. Yes. Yet another reason to come to Cobra Lounge. Happening Saturday the 21st, Effigies, Bollweevils, Evictions.

James VanOsdol: Johnny, the Evictions, we mentioned those three new songs. Will they find their way into the set?

Johnny: Oh yeah. Most of our set is new music at this point. Yeah, we’ve been sitting on this kind of for a while and it was just a matter of figuring out, “Alright, how do we do this? Do we do an EP? Do we just do a split?” You know, what’s the—and we finally just said, you know what, we got this opportunity, we got—I don’t think—eight or nine songs. Let’s just go get it all out, you know, track everything, and then we’ll finish it up and figure it out later. So now we’re in the “figure it out later” thing, but we got a good chunk of it done and three of them are out, so listen to those, enjoy, and then hopefully, like I said, we’ll have the whole album released proper this fall.

James VanOsdol: I talk about this topic a lot, and I think this is a good group to bring it up with. We’ve got a couple generations represented here, we’ve got an actual music producer here. In the present day, does it make more sense to do that “slow drip” of songs or a full album? I mean, back when Effigies were starting, the album was the way you released music. In the present day, in a digital world, it’s not necessarily a priority. I think there’s an argument to be made on both sides. And Andy, you’ve made music or helped produce music for countless bands. Where do you all sit on this in 2026?

Andy: I mean, I’ve always been more involved in the making of music as opposed to the selling of music. But I do think there’s a new sort of way that people experience and and partake in music that isn’t the way that we grew up thinking about it, you know? And and truth be told, like the LP wasn’t a thing before like, you know, the late ’60s anyway. Like that, you know, you’d put out singles and then if you had enough of them you eventually put out a compilation record, and that’s all it was. Nobody really put that much thought into like an album. Like, you know, it was a collection of singles and then, you know, that was a thing, that was the norm for, you know, the rest of the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s. And then like in the 2000s, when, you know, all the Napsters and file sharing and people like stopped sort of thinking of music as a physical product, like that also I think encouraged a different way of listening and a different way of consuming that the kids do. Like, they don’t—they don’t think of albums per se; they definitely think of singles. So as an old fart, to me, like the album is like a statement. It’s like a painting or something, you know? It’s like—you don’t just paint a little corner and see if everybody likes that one person in that corner; to me, you got to have the full picture. But that doesn’t mean I’m right by any means. And I think you can kind of do both too. Like, um, I know that we’ve been encouraged by people around us that the “steady drip-feed” is kind of the thing to do, I guess, these days. Well, you got to look at the medium too. I mean, it’s the internet. So I mean—people are getting bombarded immediately all the time with information, information. So I think, you know, sending out songs every month or whatever or drip-feeding it into the system, it’s probably the smart way to do it now so that you’re constantly, you know, being seen or you’re constantly being heard. But putting out an album, like Andy was saying, it’s like a work of art. It’s like a whole package, it’s a whole piece. It’s a whole statement. It’s a whole statement, exactly. If you’re touring and you’ve got merch, then like an album makes a lot of sense, you know? You want to have something physical that you can sell at the show that the audience can take home with them and enjoy. But that doesn’t mean that they haven’t already like streamed it all, you know, one at a time, you know? So, you know, I think there’s—it’s a dance, it’s a delicate dance.

James VanOsdol: Johnny, you’ve played kind of both ends of it.

Johnny: Yeah. Um, and I think to a certain extent too, it’s just kind of almost a matter of like just time and economics also. Because if you’re going to go through the effort of like getting something pressed, getting plates, you know, the whole thing of doing that and putting the money into it, it’s like, well, is it better to do this huge thing and put out four songs on a little EP, or should we just write some more stuff and make the big effort to have a, like you said, a cooler merch item, you know, that kind of thing? But we’ve done both, you know? We’ve put out EPs, we’ve got a split out that we put out with a band. We’ve got a full-length, we’re about to put out our second full-length. I don’t really know either because it’s like I kind of see both sides of what bands do and what bands did in even punk rock bands in the ’80s, you know. But recently, because I’ll just look at, okay, what are big bands that I like doing, and it’s like, okay, well, they’ll put out a single and then a couple weeks later they’ll put out another single. They’ll do like maybe three singles and then they drop the full album. But by then, everyone’s kind of made the big social media hoopla over new material. Right, right. So that kind of serves the purpose of just getting people excited there’s new stuff on the way. They listen to the hit singles that got dropped first and then when the album’s out, who knows? Then you can listen to the rest of it. But for the purpose of getting people excited about something your band’s putting out, it’s just basically digital marketing tools. But I still think that if you’re going to be a band that plans on being around for a while, you should do LPs. One LP a year or whatever. Because it shows you the progression of the band. You get a certain feel for that time in each moment that those were made. So you associate it with what was happening during that time. So you get this kind of continuum, this history. And I think that’s what’s cool, you know? It’s like an author writing a series of books, you know, over time. You’re building up your art over your career. And at the end of it, hopefully you’re proud of what you’ve done and you can say I created something, you know, that’s out there and as long as will never really go away, especially in the digital age, it’s always going to be out there somewhere, you know?

James VanOsdol: New music from both, Effigies and Evictions on stage at Cobra Lounge Saturday the 21st. The mighty Bollweevils also on stage. What a bill this is. Cobra Lounge, Saturday night, 235 North Ashland, the place. Great room, great punk rock room. And, you know, if you want to come early and order some pizzas, you wouldn’t be wrong to do it, because these pizzas are fabulous.

Effigies member: It’s like a hot dog, but a pizza. It’s ridiculous.

James VanOsdol: I don’t think they’ve had anything here over the years that has not been pretty awesome. Having been here when they opened and up until now, everything’s fabulous. Jason’s a treasure. I do want to thank—I messaged Louie, the owner, saying, “Do you mind if I camp out in your parking lot and record an interview with a couple of the bands that are playing your room?” He’s like, “No, dude! I think Jason’s here, he can make some pizzas for you guys.” So I want to thank Louie for being hospitable and wonderful as always for helping facilitate this DIY podcast. Guys, thank you for jumping in the car. It’s a Monday night, it’s kind of a quiet night for everyone except for the Evictions. Thanks for doing this; I’m glad we could all come together.

All: Thank you. It was very enjoyable. We had a good time. Thanks again.

James VanOsdol: Anytime, man. And we’ll see you on stage at Cobra.

All: Thank you.