by Jesse Davidson

Have you ever wanted to hangout with a beer swilling, gun toting intellectual who can have an in depth conversation about life and then sing you a song about various activities you can do with your penis? Well, that’s pretty much what hanging around Thoughtcrime and the Muddy Browns is like. Although both bands are comprised of the same members, Jose Carrillo on drums, Gabe Gonzales on bass, Oscar Pleitez on guitar, both bands reflect two different personalities of the band. Muddy Browns represent the side the drinks a case of PBR at house party and gives your daughter eyes while covering a Muddy Waters song. Thoughtcrime represents the late night conversation by the pool after the party that you won’t forget. Conveniently enough, this where I had my conversation with the members of the band. When Master Gabe contacted me about conducting an interview with him, he invited me to come over to the house, drink whiskey, and listen to records. Hardly being able to say no, I headed over to Muddy Brown Manor to see what the night had in store for me.

 

The following is transcribed and pieced together from recording of that night.

 

As with any situation, you’re never quite sure of what to expect. This was my feeling on arriving at Muddy Brown Manor. Waiting at the door, I heard not just Gabe but the rest of the Thoughtcrime crew with a few other voices. Oscar answered the door and I entered the house. I couldn’t find any whiskey or vinyl but I did find a twelve pack of beer and an almost eaten chocolate sheet cake. Not a weak grocery store bakery cake but a Costco sized mammoth of a cake that was almost extinct by the time I arrived, and to which Oscar graciously offered me both.

 

I passed a Ping-Pong table on the way to the pool where I found not just Gabe but Jose, Michelle Navarette from Cedar Open Mic and two fellows I had not met yet. Later I discovered these two were called Cousin Junior and Mousekey. “Davidson!” Gabe yells. “You didn’t bring your trunks?!” I knew I was in for an interesting evening. As I get situated with my beer and phone ready to record, it appears the Thoughtcrime collective is not quite ready for the interview. The edge of the pool is littered with clusters of beer bottles and cans like little villages on the waterfront complete with a lone scented candle burning on the brick wall dividing the Jacuzzi and the pool. Still, something was missing. “Hey, is there any cake left?” Jose asked. A discussion ensured about the best way to eat cake in the pool without getting it wet. “How about the boogie board?” as I point toward the other end of the pool. A round of cheers sprang up from everyone and without missing a beat, Oscar springs out of his lawn chair next to me, like a kid on Christmas morning, and goes running into the house to find the leftovers of the cake. He placed on the board and it worked perfectly. Creating floating dessert to all who wanted it.

 

We had the cake and started recording. There was no real start to the interview. I mean, where’s the best place to start recording when everyone is trying to figure out who is the most hung in the band? You have no choice but to let it roll and fill in the rest later (no pun intended).

 

I begin to ask a question but Oscar pulls out an acoustic guitar from thin air, Gabe begins singing a David Allan Coe song, and I start pretending I’m the voice-over guy for a Time Life CD commercial selling Gabe’s Sensual Hits.

 

 

Gabe: “You know, I was in Vegas for Punk Rock Bowling and we were in a hotel room watching Time Life Songwriter shit. That is the coolest fucking commercial ever. You get snippets of songs and you cry, you laugh, you weep (laughs). And then they have the greatest hits of the 60’s…Hey Mouskey, get over here…you good at ping-pong Davidson?”

 

Me: “I’m alright. Not too great at it.”

 

Gabe: “Hey this interview is about you. What would you say is your greatest attribute? Like if you had to look at yourself in the mirror and write an obituary what would you say?”

 

As I think about this, Mouskey walks over shining a flashlight in the pool.

 

Gabe: “Hey Mousekey, are those fuckin’ UGGs?”

 

Everyone looks down to find this large, over six foot tall man dressed like Hunter S Thompson is ready for the apocalypse with a pair of bright brown UGG boots and everyone burst out laughing

 

Gabe: “Hey you know what, if this interview was about Mousekey, it would be the sickest shit ever. You think of it he’s done it.”

 

Me: “Yeah?”

 

Gabe: “Yeah! He hasn’t gone to space yet. Well, his mind has been to space a couple times.” (laughs)

 

Mousekey: “Anyone want a hotdog?”

 

Gabe: “Hey get Davidson one with mustard only. He don’t fuck with ketchup”

 

Me: (laughs)

 

Mousekey: “Actually bro, there’s only one bun left”

 

(laughter)

 

Gabe: “Well put the two cocks into one bun. Give the little piece of bread with some mayo on it.”

 

 

At this point, my sides hurt and we tried to start a formal interview.

 

 

Me: “So how did the three amigos get together and start a…”

 

Jose: “Hey why are we amigos? I find that kind of racist.” (Laughter)

 

Gabe: “I’ll be honest here. Oscar met Josey (Jose’s nickname) before I did. He thought Josey was a cockblocker because Oscar was trying to have sex with some young lady but Josey was trying to have sex with her too. So Oscar told me, ‘I was hanging out these dudes and there was some fat guy there’.

 

“No offense foo’ ” Gabe says to Jose.

 

“And then I said to Oscar, ‘Fuck that fool’. So initially, I kind of wanted to whoop Josey’s ass because he was cockblock-ing Oscar. “

 

Jose: “But then he saw me and he was scared.”

 

Gabe: “Nah I wasn’t scared because that’s nothing to me (laughs). But then I met him and thought he was pretty cool.”

 

Oscar: “Let me tell you the story. I met him at the first Dogs of War come back show (A local hardcore band from the AV).”

 

Jose: “How many times has Dogs of War come back?”

 

Gabe: “About 17 times.” (laughter)

 

At this point, the English bulldog in the house Haji, starts walking by the pool area and almost steps on my phone.

 

Gabe: “Watch your phone. He’s gonna send dick pics to all the people you know. “(Everyone laughs)

 

Oscar: “So then you brought this chick around (Writer’s note: to protect her identity, the woman being mentioned will be referred to as “lady” from here on out). I hit him up and asked what’s up with Lady?” And Jose said, ‘Don’t fuck with her. She has the clap.’ She didn’t but that was his way of cockblocking me. (laughter) That’s how we met.”

Then Gabe started talking about how long he’s known Oscar but quickly ventured off on his love of weaponry, history of his break-dancing, and kicked out a quick rap about our interview with Mousekey beat boxing.

 

Gabe: “Hey when you guys get in the pool, do you leave your boxers on?”

 

Cousin Junior: “No.”

 

Gabe: Me either. “That shit is weird.”

 

Mousekey: “Anyone want the barbeque beans heated up? They’re pretty dank.”

 

Jose: “Put them on the boogie board. “(laughs)

 

Gabe: “The boogie board is the shit. I kind of want to be a boogie boarder when I grow up.” (laughter)

 

Me: “I’ve seen your pictures on Facebook and you have a passion for weaponry. Can you go into that more?”

 

Gabe: Yeah. I’ve only killed about four people in my life (laughter). See, everyone laughs at that. Actually, I’ve always had (inaudible Jose and Gabe talking).

 

Mousekey: (from across the yard) You’ve always had webbed feet?

 

Gabe: Yeah I have webbed feet and a webbed dick (Everyone laughs). You know that piece of skin that connects the tip of your dick to the rest of it? Well you’re probably circumcised but I’m not. It’s called a frenulum. It’s pretty much the same shit that’s under you’re tongue, so everyone has a dick in their mouth. (Everyone laughs).

 

Gabe then told us about tarring his frenulum in a tragic accident and warned everyone to be careful.

 

Me: Do they have support groups for that kind of thing?

 

 

Gabe: Nah I don’t need it. I live comfortably with my torn frenulum…but yeah, I love guns and shooting. Hey Mousekey, bring the gauge foo’! Bring the ’40 too.”

 

 

Mousekey emerged (still wearing the UGGs) with a 12 gauge that looked like you could take down an army of angry bears with and a small .40 caliber pistol. At this point, I thought this was hands down the strangest interview I’d ever done and how fast the fifteen minutes had gone by since I started recording. It would be foolish not to bring this up.

 

Me: It seems like to be apart of Thoughtcrime or Muddy Browns, you need to be a badass or a real man of action. What are the qualifications to be in the band?

 

 

Gabe: I don’t want to say that I take credit for being a badass. I just like doing certain shit. I’d say one of the downest motherfuckers is Josey.

 

Jose: Why?

 

Gabe: Foo’, do I really gotta…

 

Oscar: Nah, we don’t have to get into details. (everyone laughs)

 

Gabe: It’s not about being a badass. It’s just about doing whatever you want to do and to be a real motherfucker. In the band, Oscar is safe and is kind of the anchor.

 

Jose: He’s the mom.

 

Gabe: Anchor foo’, don’t call him a mom.

 

Me: Would you say that’s true Oscar?

 

Oscar: I think tour proved that, yeah. By the third day, they were calling me mom on tour (laughter).

 

Gabe: But you know what, he kept shit on schedule.

Jose: You need someone like that in the band.

 

Gabe: Yeah. You need stability. And Josey is the rebel. I’m like the wizard. The grand wizard (everyone laughs). I’m more like the big brother who gives sound advice.

 

Oscar: He’s like the cool uncle that gives kids wine coolers at parties (laughs). But ultimately, I think the requirement for being in the band is honesty. That’s my philosophy. Gabe is probably one of the most honest people I know. And makes no effort to conceal certain truths (laughs)

 

Gabe: Yeah. I walk around naked when nobody’s home. If we’re gonna continue this interview I’m taking off my trunks (takes off trunks and places them on the side of the pool).

 

Me: And you’re not wearing another set of boxers underneath that?

 

Gabe: Nope. Check this out.

Gabe then rises to the surface to prove to everyone that he is indeed not wearing any boxers whatsoever. Then turns his back and dives down below the water with his ass sticking out.

 

Gabe: I’m not wearing anything. Just glasses (laughter). But yeah, you have to be a real motherfucker and have good gear.

 

Me: What would you say are the biggest misconceptions about being on tour?

 

Jose: You get laid every night.

 

Oscar: Yeah (laughs)

 

Gabe: Everyone thinks that when you play out of town, you’ll have a huge crowd. Honestly, no one gives a fuck about you. That’s something you have to work out. It’s kind of cute being from out of town and being from L.A. But we don’t do that we claim Lancaster. And the people on tour treated us very well.

 

 

Oscar: Another misconception is that you come back famous. After we came back, we had about 8 or 9 likes on Facebook. I think there are two kinds of tours these days are DIY and fully funded tours. We had a DIY tour and we all pitched in and rented a van. We met nice enough people that housed us for the night. We only had to pay for one hotel and we also crashed Eddie and the Moo Crew’s hotel room in Vegas. (The guitarist from Enemy Proof)

 

 

 

Me: So there’s a lot of beer around and Gabe, you work for “beer”. Does that give you any advantages playing music?

 

 

Gabe: I think beer holds the biggest influence over both bands because Oscar and I work for beer companies. He works at a brewery and me at a distributor.

 

Oscar: We have the three stages of production, producer (points at himself), distributor (points to Gabe), and consumer (points to Josey) (Laughter).

 

Gabe: Beer definitely holds the biggest influence. I probably drink my weight in PBR a week (laughs). As far as the music goes, it influences Muddy Browns a bit more. It’s for like getting your dick sucked and kicking back on a Saturday. Whereas Thoughtcrime is more for the scholar, you know? For that band, you’d drink a framboise while Muddy Browns is more Mississippi Mud.

 

 

Me: Is there anything else you want people to know about Thoughtcrime and Muddy Browns?

 

Oscar: Just listen to the music and the words. A lot of bands write music for the masses and music for people to mosh to. This is more from the heart and to get people to think about things. Muddy Browns is just trying to get women to shake their bottoms.

 

Gabe: It just so happens that’s what happens when the music plays. I’m not trying to do that. I just play blues and, in a mid-level establishment, that’s what happens.

 

Me: That’s what happened back in the day.

 

Gabe: It was! You think Muddy Waters had Facebook? If he did, he wouldn’t give a fuck about it. He’d be out there playing music and trying to make money. Which is what we’re trying to do.

 

Muddy Browns are looking to hit the road in October and both bands have recorded new music to be released soon. If you want more info check out Muddy Browns or Thoughtcrime on Facebook