After a few rounds of phone tag, I hooked up with the Fells. I met them at the house where they practice in Tucson. I brought over a 12 pack, and we did the interview on the porch on a warm October night.
The Fells consist of:
Rob Yazzie (AKA Rob1), bass

Heath Heemsbergen, guitar and vocals

Rob Alper (AKA Rob2), drums

Jeff Glave, guitar and vocals

CM: What's the best thing you ever dressed up as for Halloween?
Rob2: I was Alice Cooper two years in a row.
Jeff: I made an R2D2 costume when I was 8 years old. It really hurt my head and was really hot and uncomfortable.
Heath: When I was a kid I had a gorilla mask so I was planet of the apes for like four years. And you know anything goes with a gorilla mask. You can be a gorilla in a lab coat, .. a gorilla wearing a dress...
CM: The desert is a thing that we have that most people reading this probably don't have any experience with. Any experiences with desert animals? Anyone been bit by one of those desert things?
Heath: I caught a rattlesnake one time. I used a forked stick to hold its head down.
Jeff: (interrupting) That is not true!
Heath: (continuing) I had this giant Sunny Delight bottle, and I lifted the stick and it squirmed inside. It was a little one.
Rob2: I found dead lizards. My cat would bring them in and leave little lizard skeletons on my bed.
Heath: The fringe-footed sand lizard makes a little 'V' in the sand and grab right in front of the V and catch it. They go underneath the sand.
CM: What's the first record you ever bought?
Jeff: You mean with your own money?
Rob1: The only one I can remember is the Soundtrack of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Rob2: The first album I ever bought with my own money was the DoorsGreatest Hits. The first cassette I ever got was Twisted Sister Stay Hungry.
Jeff: The first album I ever bought was Kiss' Love Gun. But I already had some Kiss 8 tracks my parents had bought me.
Heath: Songs and Stories of the Justice League of America.
CM: If you could compare your band to a figure in history, who would it be?
Jeff: Norman Fell.
Heath: Warren Oates. No one appreciates you until you are gone. Warren Oates is a character actor. He was the sergeant in Stripes.
CM: What is the greatest engine of all time?
Rob2: 340. Dodge 340 small block.
Rob1: Actually the 340 six pack.
Heath: The little engine that could.
CM: Any favorite engines Jeff?
Jeff: I've always been a fan of go-karts.
guy sitting around: the Toyota 22R4. Those things will fuckin' never die. I'm not in the band though.
CM: Yeah, didn't Jeff dress up as one of those?
CM: Any brush with fame stories?
Rob1: I met Vincent Price. (Rob1 proceeds to go into the house and gets a picture of 3 little kids standing with Vincent Price).
CM: Was he a cool guy?
Rob1: Yeah. I was in 8th grade and we went to some museum with our parents. He was there.
CM: (looking at the picture) Which one is you, the biggest kid?
Rob1: Yeah.
Jeff: I saw the guy that played Screech in the St. Louis airport. Screech from "Saved by the Bell", and he had a big black "Saved by the Bell" jacket.
Rob1: Didn't one of you meet Flea? No, that was Damian. He got pushed out of the way by Flea in some airport.
Rob2: I met the Ramones. They are the best band ever.
CM: Meet any famous people, Heath?
Heath: Not randomly. My mom waited on Lee Marvin at Penney's. And also on Sugar Ray Leonard.
Rob2: I used to have autographed boxing gloves from Sugar Ray Leonard.
CM: Any tour stories?
Rob1: I threw a shoe through a window.
Heath: Rob thought someone stole his bass in Seattle and he threw a fit. He was kicking walls and then he accidentally kicked his shoe through a window.
Rob1: It was locked in the club. The next day I walked into that place and my shoe was right there on the counter. I explained the story to the guy." yeah... some people jumped me and I tried to hit them with my shoe and it slipped out of my hand and went through your window." And the guy says, "I don't fuckin' care. I'll tell the big boss and they'll fix the window."
Jeff: So if you get jumped, consider hitting them with your shoe.
Rob2: We stole beer from Thee Headcoats.
Jeff: They gave us beer.
Rob2: And then when they were playing we got more.
Jeff: Yeah we also stole some. Billy Childish gave us some cookies too.
Jeff: Rob kissed 5 girls in one night in New Orleans.
Rob1: You should edit that.
CM: we're gonna print that one, that's pretty good.
Heath: I don't think I have ever kissed more than two girls in my life.
CM: What's big in the garage scene these days? I was up there at GarageShock. I feel like those bands are good and that someday someone's gonna hear about them.
Rob2: I think it is good at the level it is now. I don't know what to make of the scene but I really like the Statics. They are one of my favorite bands.
Jeff: I think there is a really good scene in kinda old style punk, not old school, old style. Like '60s and '70s punk and garage rock. It's good and it's out there and you have to search for it. And the bands stick together and a lot of them are great. And it isn't big enough yet that there are a lot of stupid people jumping on the bandwagon.
CM: I think all bands have other bands that they want to be like. Any bands you want to be like?
Jeff: We don't pretend to be original, we just want to play kick ass rock and roll.
(There is snickering amongst the rest of the members at this statement, but they all agree that that is what the Fells are about, and I am not going to argue. They have a new record coming out on Estrus, and although I haven't heard it, if the live show is any indication, its gonna rock)

They all proceeded to march down into one of the only basements I have ever seen in Tucson, a small ancient dirty crypt-like room and bash out 3 chord rock songs with a feel that is 30 years old, and yet brand new.

The Fells have a new album out on Estrus Records. Needless to say, it's pretty phenomenal. In addition to their own brand of bigrockaction, they kick out the jams on a Weirdos tune.

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