A real punk-rocker is totally DIY or Do-It-Yourself, according to the punk outfit Unit 21. He doesn’t go to or play shows in clubs, with their codes and restrictions. No, he parties off the beaten path. Like at somebody’s house. One of Unit 21’s two guitarists, who goes by the “non-serious” name of Chris Piss, said his band’s New Year’s Eve show at a private North Texas address drew several hundred beer-guzzling, mostly mohawked fans. “Punks love to party,” he said.
They also love being punks. “Punk is a state of mind,” Piss said. “It’s about living free from society, being yourself, and taking your own path.”
Punks also apparently love Unit 21, a Fort Worth quintet that has toured the United States, Europe, and Japan and, even though the band members are only in their late 20s, has been around for almost a decade.
In 2001, focused teenagers Piss, Cory Keg, The Wizard, Kevin Ghonerea, and Davo Danger officially formed Unit 21, a reference to the number of the amendment that ended Prohibition. Their first full-length, False Dream, False Hope, followed in 2004, when the band had begun taking on a more hardcore punk sound. Frontman Keg is more of a bellicose screamer than someone who holds specific notes. To add to the intensity, the two guitarists trade off mean power riffs while the tight rhythm section blasts along at machine-gun speed.
Keg’s bitter diatribes against life and society expose his inner nature, according to the guitarist. Keg, Piss said, “likes to show everyone he’s happy and having fun, but, really, he’s pissed off.” The singer manages a drive-thru fried chicken joint when he’s not smashing his head into a microphone, which may add to his acrid songwriting style. “Secret Vulture,” a song available on the band’s MySpace page but not yet on an album, is about Keg’s “wanting to kill everyone he comes into contact with,” Piss said. Less violent but along the same lines is “Soccer Mom,” a song about “chicken-gluttonous mothers who think they own everything,” Piss said.
The angst extends worldwide. Not too long ago, Unit 21’s tight fury had found its way to a guitarist named Souichi from a popular Japanese band called Forward. Souichi designed the artwork for and funded Unit 21’s 2008 release, Death Stripes, and founded a label. Under the Surface Records helped bring the Fort Worth punks to Japan last summer to make the rounds with Crude, a Japanese punk outfit.
Touring Japan is way different from North Texas house shows, said Piss, who described the Japanese punk scene as “perfectionist.” There are extensive sound checks before shows and always state-of-the-art equipment.
Unit 21 does play clubs, especially 1919 Hemphill on the South Side and Denton’s Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios. Still, house shows reign no matter where you are – here, Oklahoma, Los Angeles, New York. (Piss said that East and West Coast house parties are larger than the ones here, probably because “it’s so spread out here, and punks like to ride their bikes.”)
The band has just returned from the annual Chaos in Tejas punk-fest in Austin, playing with tourmates Crude and sharing the stage with major acts such as Propagandhi. In July, Unit 21 is going back to Japan.
The members of Unit 21 still have to pay the bills. Keg and the other guitarist, Kevin, a loan officer, work full-time. The other three guys get by on side jobs. In addition, three Unit 21 members are in Tolar, a heavy-metal band that is planning to tour Europe after Unit 21’s Japan trip.
With all due respect to his 9-to-5-ing bandmates, Piss said, “When you get a job, then a kid, you have no future.” l
